New Hampshire
Man gets nearly 5 years in prison for robbing banks
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for six bank robberies in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, taking more than $25,000 total.
Eric Mohan, 48, received a 57-month federal prison sentence on Thursday. He had pleaded guilty to the crimes in September.
Prosecutors said in February, Mohan first robbed a Triangle Credit Union in Manchester, New Hampshire using a demand note. He robbed a Salem Five Bank in Tewksbury, Massachusetts twice, an Align Credit Union in Danvers, and then two other credit unions in New Hampshire.
He was arrested in April after the Federal Bureau of Investigation had identified his vehicle and tracked him to a credit union in New Hampshire. Prosecutors said while being arrested, Mohan dropped a bag containing more than $10,000 and a demand note.
Mohan’s lawyer had asked for a four-year prison sentence, saying the robberies were motivated by “a desperate drug addiction” that Mohan has sought treatment for. He has completed spiritual and therapeutic counseling programs.
The lawyer said Mohan, a former teacher, has requested additional substance abuse rehabilitation and mental health counseling services.
Vermont
March trial set for mall kidnapping
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A man charged with kidnapping a woman and her child from a mall in New Hampshire and then bringing them to Vermont in 2019 is expected to go on trial in March.
Everett Simpson has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
Police say Simpson left a Bradford drug abuse treatment center in 2019, and then traveled to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he kidnapped the woman and child and brought them to Vermont.
He is also facing separate state charges. Prosecutors said Simpson is expected to face the state charges after the federal case has been resolved.
The trial was delayed in part because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, a federal judge proposed a March 6, 2023, trial date and both sides agreed. The Caledonian Record first reported on the date.
New Hampshire
Lawsuit targets voucher-like program used by 3K students
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The leader of one of New Hampshire’s teachers’ unions is suing to stop public dollars from being spent to fund private schools through the Education Freedom Account program.
The lawsuit in Merrimack County Superior Court this week seeks an injunction to stop the voucher-like program that began last year, contending it violates the New Hampshire Constitution.
Deb Howes, president of the American Federation of Teachers New Hampshire, said the program runs afoul of the constitution because money from New Hampshire’s education trust fund is specifically set aside for public education and cannot be used for private purposes.
“The state specifically earmarked this money for public education. Instead, the state is stealing from public school students in plain sight to pay for its private voucher program,” she said in a statement.
Senate President Jeb Bradley, a Republican from Wolfeboro, accused the union of trying to block a successful program that’s helping low-income students “get the best education possible.”
The number of participants roughly doubled this fall with 3,025 New Hampshire students qualifying for grants totaling nearly $14.7 million this school year, according to state officials.
The New Hampshire program is open to any private school, including religious schools.
Neighboring Maine and Vermont also have opened up their private tuition programs to religious schools.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Maine couldn’t exclude religious schools from its program that offers tuition aid for private education for students who live in towns without a public school. Earlier this month, the Vermont Agency of Education and several school districts settled lawsuits over similar policy.
New Mexico
Lawsuit: Governor threatened retaliation for records request
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A former state senator says he was threatened by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham through an emissary with “escalating consequences” if he did not withdraw a request by his law firm for public records concerning the administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a lawsuit filed this week.
Attorney and former legislator Jacob Candelaria of Albuquerque filed the complaint with a state District Court in Albuquerque, renewing a 2020 request for email correspondence among advisors to the governor, Lujan’s travel records and more under provisions of the state Inspection of Public Records Act.
The lawsuit alleges that Democratic Senate majority leader Peter Wirth of Santa Fe visited Candelaria’s office in Dec. 10, 2020, and told Candelaria that Lujan Grisham said there would be escalating consequences if the public records request was not rescinded.
Maddy Hayden, communications director at the governor’s office, called the allegations “wholly baseless and without merit,” in an email. Wirth declined to comment on the matter.
Contacted Friday, Candelaria said he rescinded the public records request in 2020 out of concern that possible retaliation might disrupt his work in the Legislature on behalf of political constituents or even affect his husband’s employment at a state-run hospital.
The 35-year-old former lawmaker said the lawsuit aims to ensure the governor can’t sidestep any eligible requests for public documents or inquiries into her administration’s response to the pandemic.
“Where she crossed the line is in saying, ‘Withdraw this or else,’” Candelaria said.
Candelaria teamed up with Republican lawmakers to successfully challenge the governor and defend the Legislature’s authority over spending priorities for more than $1 billion in federal pandemic aid, arguing the case before the state Supreme Court in 2021.
Candelaria ended his affiliation with the Democratic Party a year ago and stepped down from his Senate seat in October, roughly halfway through a four-year term in office, to devote more time to starting a family.
Ohio
Court: Resentence mom who put newborn in rash at sorority
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A woman who was imprisoned without parole for killing her daughter by throwing the infant in the trash after giving birth at her college sorority house should be resentenced, a divided Ohio Supreme Court has ruled.
The justices also ordered that a different judge should handle the resentencing of Emilie Weaver, now 27. She was convicted of aggravated murder and several other counts stemming from the child’s death in April 2015. Weaver could have been sentenced to life with a chance for parole in as little as 20 years, which was requested by her attorney, but Judge Mark Fleegle said he wasn’t convinced Weaver was remorseful.
Weaver sought post-conviction relief in 2017, arguing her lawyer didn’t present a complete explanation of neonaticide and she could have received a lesser sentence. Neonaticide is the murder of an infant within 24 hours of birth.
Fleegle, who also handled the post-conviction relief hearing, discredited an expert witness who tried to explain Weaver’s condition. An appellate court upheld the sentencing, but in their 4-3 decision announced Thursday, the state Supreme Court found Weaver had ineffective counsel at her sentencing.
Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor noted in the majority opinion that Fleegle demonstrated an arbitrary and unreasonable attitude toward evidence of both neonaticide as well as “pregnancy-negation syndrome,” where a person is in denial about their pregnancy.
Prosecutors have said Weaver gave birth in a bathroom at the Delta Gamma Theta sorority at Muskingum University, then purposefully caused the death of her baby. They said the baby girl died from asphyxiation after Weaver put her in a plastic trash bag and left her outside the sorority house.
Weaver testified at trial that she had been in denial about the pregnancy and thought the baby was already dead when she put the newborn in the trash bag.
Public defenders who represented Weaver did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment on the decision.
Texas
Men’s basketball coach arrested on felony family violence charge
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas men’s basketball coach Chris Beard was arrested early Monday on a felony family violence charge, according to Travis County Jail records.
The Travis County Sheriff’s Office said the 49-year-old Beard was arrested by Austin police and booked at 4:18 a.m. on a charge of assault on a family or household member in which their breath was impeded, or choking, in common terms.
The charge is a third-degree felony in Texas, with a possible punishment of two to 10 years in prison. The jail records showed Beard had not yet posted bond as of Monday morning and did not indicate when he would be making an initial court appearance.
The records also did not identify an attorney for Beard.
“The university is aware of the situation regarding Chris Beard. We are continuing to gather information and monitoring the legal process,” the school said in a statement.
The second-ranked Longhorns (7-1) play Rice on Monday night.
Beard is in his second season with the Longhorns. Before that, he led Texas Tech to the 2019 NCAA Tournament championship game.
California
Man sentenced in 2016 killing of two teenagers
WOODLAND, Calif. (AP) — The last of four men convicted of killing a pair of California teenagers who vanished more than six years ago has been sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison.
The Sacramento Bee reported Jonathan Froste was sentenced Friday for the 2016 kidnapping and killing of the teens, whose bodies were never found despite years of effort.
Froste was among four people charged with killing 16-year-old Enrique Rios and his friend, 17-year-old Elijah Moore. He had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified against the other three defendants.
Prosecutors said Moore was killed in revenge after stealing 3 ounces (85 grams) of marijuana from three of the defendants.
Rios was shot and killed by David Froste, Jonathan’s brother, in October 2016 when he refused to call or provide a location for Moore, who was killed several weeks later, on Nov. 4, prosecutors said.
Moore was kidnapped while leaving a barber shop in Woodland, 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento.
Prosecutors said he was forced into the trunk of a car and taken to Knights Landing on the Sacramento River, where he was bound and was denied pleas to call his mother and release him. He was beaten to death with tree branches, crushing his skull.
His body was then placed in a hole, burned and buried.
Shannon, Campos and the Froste brothers were arrested in 2018. Authorities tracked their locations and movements through cellphone data and social media activity.
David Froste, Shannon and Campos are serving life sentences.
