Alabama
Court: 70-year-old indicted in church triple slaying
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama grand jury has indicted a 70-year-old man on capital murder charges in the fatal shootings of three people at a church potluck dinner in June, according to court records made public Friday.
The Jefferson County grand jury indicted Robert Findlay Smith this week in connection with the June 16 shootings of Walter “Bart” Rainey, 84, of Irondale; Sarah Yeager, 75, of Pelham; and Jane Pounds, 84, of Hoover, al.com reported.
Police responded June 16 to a report of an active shooter at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, a wealthy suburb of Birmingham. About 25 people, including Smith, had gathered late that afternoon for a “Boomers Potluck” dinner. He had previously attended some worship services and at least one of the previous potluck dinners there, authorities said.
Jefferson County prosecutors on Thursday presented the case to the grand jury, which returned indictments against Smith.
“Smith has been indicted for capital murder for killing two or more people,’’ District Attorney Danny Carr told al.com Friday. “It is still very early in the prosecution of this case. We will be working closely with the families of those who lost their lives that terrible day ... as we progress toward holding Smith accountable.”
Smith is being represented by attorneys Emory Anthony and Moses Stone. Anthony did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. Stone’s telephone listing went unanswered. Smith remains without bond in the Jefferson County Jail. A trial date has not yet been set.
Smith was seated alone at the dinner when a longtime church member approached him and invited him to sit with others at a table, said the Rev. Doug Carpenter, who founded the church in 1973 and retired in 2005. Smith refused the offer, but then pulled out a handgun and shot three people, authorities and reports said.
A church member rushed the gunman, struck him with a chair and held him until officers arrived, according to police.
Rainey was pronounced dead on the scene. Yeager and Pounds were taken to a hospital where they later died.
Authorities said they have not yet identified a motive in the slayings.
Missouri
Woman acquitted of murder in teen daughter’s death
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A judge on Friday acquitted a southwestern Missouri woman on murder and two other felony charges in the death of the autistic teenage daughter that she gave up for adoption as a baby.
Greene County Circuit Court Judge Calvin Holden found Rebecca Ruud not guilty of first- and second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and felony abuse or neglect of a child but found her guilty on the remaining charge, illegally abandoning a corpse. The charges stemmed from the July 2017 death of 16-year-old Savannah Leckie, whose remains were found in a burn pit on Ruud’s remote property near the Arkansas-Missouri border.
Ruud is scheduled to be sentenced on the last charge Sept. 15 by Holden, who heard the case instead of a jury in Springfield after a change of venue from Ozark County to the southwest. Ruud could get up to four years in prison.
Prosecutors described Savannah as the victim of severe abuse after she left her adoptive family in Minnesota and moved to Missouri to be with her biological mother. Ruud said the girl disappeared after running away because she blamed herself for starting a fire on the family’s property.
Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office declined to comment about the judge’s decision. A public defender representing Ruud did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Ruud lived outside Theodosia, a village about 250 people roughly 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Branson, a popular vacation destination. According to a probable cause statement filed along with the charges against Ruud in 2017, the girl’s adoptive mother asked Ruud to take her because Savannah did not get along with her adoptive mother’s fiancé.
Authorities said that after the girl moved to Missouri, she was home-schooled and had “almost no social contacts.”
Ruud reported Savannah missing two days after the fire on the family’s remote property, authorities said. Several searches turned up human teeth, a meat grinder, a knife and 26 bottles of lye, which can be used to accelerate the breakdown of bodily tissue, according to court documents. Human bone fragments were found in a field about 400 yards (365 meters) from Ruud’s home, about two weeks after Savannah’s reported disappearance.
An ex-boyfriend of Ruud’s told investigators that he had seen her discipline Savannah by forcing the teen to crawl through a hog pen and making her bathe in a pond, authorities said. Ruud acknowledged that this was true and told investigators that when Savannah cut her arm “in a suicidal gesture,” she forced the girl to scrub the wound daily with alcohol and salt as punishment.
New York
Neurologist guilty on 12 counts of sexually abusing patients
NEW YORK (AP) — A once-prominent neurologist was found guilty Friday on charges of sexually abusing patients while treating them with pain medications.
A New York City jury reached the verdict after deliberating for about three days at the trial of Dr. Ricardo Cruciani.
Cruciani, 68, was convicted on 12 criminal counts — one count of predatory sexual assault, one of attempted rape, one of sex abuse, two of rape and seven of criminal sexual acts. He was acquitted on two other counts.
“We entrust doctors to respect our bodies and health when we go to them for help, yet Dr. Cruciani utterly violated that duty,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. Cruciani, Bragg added, “left in his wake six survivors who continue to suffer from debilitating diseases, and now, years of trauma.”
Cruciani had worked for several leading pain-management providers during his career. He has denied the sexual abuse allegations. His attorney, Fred Sosinsky, said Friday there would be an appeal.
“My client and his beautiful family are crushed by today’s verdict,” the lawyer said. “In the end, it appears that the collective weight of six accusers, rather than a fair consideration of each of their problematic accounts, carried the day.”
Cruciani, who had been out on bail, was jailed after the verdict was announced.
Prosecutors alleged Cruciani groomed vulnerable patients by overprescribing pain killers, sometimes to treat serious injuries from car wrecks and other accidents.
Six women testified the sexual abuse often occurred behind closed doors during appointments in 2013 at a Manhattan medical center, where the doctor would expose himself and demand sex.
“He didn’t finish writing my prescriptions until I did something for him,” one told the jury.
In closing arguments, prosecutor Shannon Lucey called the behavior “just pure evil,” adding, “This defendant is nothing but a drug dealer who used his prescription pad as a weapon.”
Sosinsky countered by arguing the witnesses weren’t credible, telling the jury the women “were willing to lie” and “dispute the indisputable” to make the charges stick.
Among the witnesses at a trial that began seven weeks ago was Hillary Tullin, who helped fuel the case by calling a sexual abuse hotline in 2017 and reporting that Cruciani had abused her between 2005 and 2013.
“Mr. Cruciani and his lawyers were indefatigable in their attempts to portray me and the other witnesses as liars but the truth prevailed,” Tullin said Friday in response to the verdict. “What happened to us is real, it’s traumatic, and it can no longer be denied.”
The AP does not typically identify people who say they are survivors of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Tullin has done.
Cruciani is still facing federal charges accusing him of abusing multiple patients over 15 years at his offices in New York City, Philadelphia and Hopewell, New Jersey.
The federal charges and state trial follow years of public complaints by Cruciani’s accusers that authorities in some places were not taking his crimes seriously, particularly in Philadelphia, where he pleaded guilty to relatively minor misdemeanor groping counts involving seven patients.
New Jersey
Woman convicted of murder in death of 17-month-old son
GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey woman has been convicted of murder in the death of her 17-month-old son but acquitted of conspiracy in an alleged murder-for-hire plot to kill a former boyfriend.
Heather Reynolds, 45, of Sicklerville wept as the Camden County jury announced its verdict Thursday, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Reynolds, who was also convicted of possession of methamphetamine and endangering the welfare of a child, faces a mandatory life prison term when she is sentenced in October.
Prosecutors alleged that Reynolds suffocated her 17-month-old son, Axel, by holding a cleansing wipe over his nose and mouth in May 2018. An autopsy concluded that the boy died from asphyxia and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.
Prosecutors also alleged that Reynolds conspired with someone else to kill a former boyfriend who had spoken to police about the child’s death, but jurors acquitted her of conspiracy to commit murder and witness-tampering, the Inquirer reported.
Defense attorney Richard Fuschino said he plans to appeal the verdict.
“We respect very much the jury’s time, but we are devastated the jury did not find reasonable doubt,” he said.
Prosecutors alleged during trial that the defendant was driven by a drug addiction and desire to maintain an extra-martial affair and killed her son to get him out of the way. Fuschino called her a devoted mother who tried to revive her son when she found him unresponsive and then ran out holding him and screaming for help from neighbors.
Arkansas
Man guilty of killing officer gets 2 life sentences
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas man has been sentenced to two life terms in prison for fatally shooting a police officer during a traffic stop in 2020 and firing at another officer on the scene.
A jury on Thursday convicted Kayvon Ward, 24, of first-degree murder in the death of Hot Springs police Officer Brent Scrimshire and aggravated assault for shooting at the other officer, who wasn’t struck. The same jury sentenced Ward on Friday.
Garland County Circuit Judge Marcia Hearnsberger ordered the sentences to be served consecutively.
“There is no excuse for your actions and the pain and suffering you caused for so many people,” Hearnsberger told Ward.
After Scrimshire stopped Ward for running a stop sign, Ward tried to flee. Ward testified that he fired a gun, but said he just wanted the officer chasing him to get down as he fled.
The jury had found Ward guilty on Thursday of first-degree murder rather than capital murder, as prosecutors had sought. A capital murder conviction would have carried a potential death penalty.
William James, Ward’s attorney, thanked the jury for choosing the lesser charge, The Sentinel-Record reported.
“There are no winners here, we’re all losers,” James said.
Scrimshire’s widow, Rachel Scrimshire, told the newspaper she was unhappy with the conviction, but satisfied with the sentence.
Ward was also convicted of possession of a defaced firearm, resisting arrest, obstructing government operations and fleeing.
At the time of the traffic stop, Ward had an outstanding warrant related to a shooting the year before in Hot Springs.
