Nebraska
Illinois man
sentenced in Neb. for pot conviction
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- An Illinois man has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for hauling 340 pounds of marijuana over Interstate 80 in Nebraska.
Charles McMillin of Oak Lawn, Ill., was stopped for speeding near Lincoln in January 2008. The state trooper who stopped him smelled marijuana coming from the car. A search turned up the drugs and $3,000 in cash.
The Nebraska State Patrol contacted Illinois authorities, who searched McMillin's home and found 111 pounds of marijuana, as well as drug-packaging materials, ledgers and nearly $27,000 in cash.
The court ordered all the cash turned over to authorities.
The 53-year-old McMillin was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court in Lincoln.
South Carolina
Court: Migrant
to get money in barracks slip
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled a migrant farm worker who slipped on a sidewalk outside a company-owned barracks is eligible for workers' compensation.
The justices Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling.
Frantz Pierre filed for workers compensation from Seaside Farms Inc. after breaking his ankle in 2003 in a fall outside a company-owned barracks on St. Helena Island.
The company says Pierre wasn't required to live in the housing and he wasn't on call.
But Pierre's lawyers say Seaside Farms wanted all of its workers nearby so it could begin picking and processing tomatoes whenever the weather was right and the crop was ready.
The justices sided with Pierre, saying the nature of his work meant he had to live in the barracks.
Arkansas
Arrest made in shooting death
of mayor's son
MALVERN, Ark. (AP) -- A man on parole from the state prison has been arrested for first-degree murder in the shooting death of the son of Malvern's mayor.
Assistant Police Chief William Ross says 23-year-old Timothy Allen Wells was arrested Tuesday for the Sunday morning death of 30-year-old Shane Northcutt. Northcutt was found dead about 4:30 a.m. Sunday a few blocks from his home.
Ross declined to discuss a possible motive for the shooting or say what led police to consider Wells a suspect. Wells has not yet appeared in court and jailers say they don't know if he has an attorney.
State Department of Correction spokeswoman Dina Tyler says Wells was on parole and has previous convictions for battery, terroristic threatening and aggravated assault.
North Dakota
Woman gets two years in crash that hurt girl
MINOT, N.D. (AP) -- A Minot woman who was driving drunk when she crashed into a house and seriously injured a sleeping teenage girl has been sentenced to serve two years in prison.
Willie Jo Starr earlier pleaded guilty to several misdemeanor charges including drunken driving and aggravated reckless driving.
Authorities say Starr, who was 21 at the time of the crash last November, drove through a basement bedroom window of a house owned by James and Deanna Klein, pinning Lexi Klein to her bed. She suffered lower back and pelvis injuries.
The Bishop Ryan High School sophomore has since recovered. She returned to the basketball court earlier this month.
Massachusetts
State court sides with insurance commissioner
BOSTON (AP) -- The state's highest court has upheld the Massachusetts Division of Insurance's decision to exempt auto insurance companies new to the state from having to cover high-risk drivers for two years.
The Supreme Judicial Court's ruling Tuesday was in response to Quincy-based Arbella Mutual Insurance's claim that former insurance commissioner Nonnie Burnes "exceeded her authority" by changing rules in 2008 that the company claimed put established companies at a competitive disadvantage.
Regulators had previously set prices for all insurers. Under the "managed competition" system put in place by Burnes, companies were given more leeway to set prices.
The Boston Globe reported that the current insurance commissioner welcomed the ruling, while an Arbella spokesman expressed disappointment.
A restitution hearing will be held later.
Kentucky
Jury convicts man in 2007 Carlisle Courthouse fire
BARDWELL, Ky. (AP) -- A jury in Bardwell has convicted a man of burning down the Carlisle County Courthouse.
The Paducah Sun reported jurors deliberated less than two hours Tuesday before finding Jeremy Ellis guilty of arson, burglary and evidence tampering in the Dec. 26, 2007, blaze.
Testifying in his own defense earlier in the day, the 21-year-old Ellis told jurors he was bragging to an informant who police had wired to record what he said.
Ellis said he was trying to appear tough because he was facing a 23-year burglary sentence in a separate case.
He told jurors he is 136 pounds and 4-foot-4 and said he "had to establish a name."
Ellis will be sentenced on Thursday and the jury recommended 12 years in prison.
Washington
Man charged in Levy slaying wants trial moved
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorneys for the man charged in the slaying of federal intern Chandra Levy want his trial moved from the D.C. area.
Ingmar Guandique (gwan-DEE'-kay) has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other counts filed in Levy's death. Levy vanished in 2001 after completing an internship with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Her body was found a year later in Rock Creek Park.
WTOP-FM reports that Guandique's attorneys want the case moved from D.C. Superior Court to a federal court outside the region.
Before Guandique's arrest, his attorneys say the Levy case was described as "the most famous unsolved murder in modern Washington." In a court filing, they argue that through media reports potential jurors have been exposed to information that may or may not be admitted as evidence.
Published: Thu, Feb 18, 2010
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