Iowa
Teen accused of killing man due in Iowa court
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- A teenager charged with killing an Illinois man in Iowa City is due in court on March 4 for an arraignment.
Seventeen-year-old Charles Thompson is charged in Johnson County as an adult with first-degree murder in the death of 64-year-old John Versypt of Cordova, Ill.
Police say Versypt was doing maintenance at one of his properties in Iowa City when he was shot to death last October. Thompson was arrested earlier this month.
Police believe Thompson intended to rob Versypt.
Thompson is being held on $1 million bond.
A telephone message for Thompson's attorney, Dennis Cohen of the Iowa public defender's office in Iowa City, on Thursday was not immediately returned.
California
Verdict reached in serial slayings from late 1970s
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- The jury has reached a verdict in the trial of a convicted rapist accused of five serial murders in the late 1970s.
The verdict will be read Thursday afternoon in the trial of 66-year-old Rodney James Alcala.
Alcala has pleaded not guilty to five counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of four women and a 12-year-old Orange County girl between 1977 and 1979.
Alcala, who represented himself, has been sentenced to death twice for 12-year-old Robin Samsoe's murder but both convictions were overturned.
Prosecutors added the four adults to the case in 2006 after investigators discovered DNA, handprints and other evidence linking Alcala to them.
Prosecutors allege Alcala tortured and raped his victims and took earrings from some of the them as trophies.
California
Police: 2nd child accuses hospital head of abuse
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Long Beach police say the former director of a mental health hospital charged with molesting his foster child is also accused of abusing another of his foster children decades earlier.
Claude Foulk, who headed the Napa State Hospital until his arrest this week, remains jailed on Thursday. He faces 35 felony counts for allegedly molesting one of the children for about a decade, beginning in the early 1990s.
Police Cmdr. Jeff Johnson says the investigation began in September when another of his foster children alleged molestation after learning Foulk headed the Napa hospital. Those allegations are not included in the charges, but investigations are ongoing with at least four alleged victims.
The 62-year-old Foulk is scheduled for arraignment on Friday in Long Beach Superior Court.
Washington
Two sentenced for beating skier in Skamania County
STEVENSON, Wash. (AP) -- A father and son convicted of beating and robbing a cross-country skier in southwest Washington have been sentenced in Stevenson.
The Vancouver Columbian reports 34-year-old Michael Collins was sentenced Thursday to 24 years in prison. He was convicted Wednesday in Skamania County Superior Court of robbery and attempted murder.
His son, 17-year-old Teven Collins, was sentenced to eight years. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder in a plea deal and testified against his father.
The two had been camping when they decided to attack Robert Tracey of Washougal on Feb. 9, 2009. He was found by hikers.
The Collins were arrested in March in Mexico after they were featured on an episode of "America's Most Wanted."
Massachusetts
Teenage boy pleads innocent
in fatal stabbing
LYNN, Mass. (AP) -- A Lynn teenager has been ordered held without bail in connection with the stabbing death of another man earlier this month.
Daryll Jones pleaded not guilty in Lynn District Court on Wednesday to murder and other charges.
The 17-year-old Jones is accused of stabbing 19-year-old Huy Le in a city playground on Feb. 12.
The judge, at the prosecution's request, impounded the police report, and other documents in the case. A spokesman for the district attorney's office said the request was made to protect the integrity of ongoing investigations.
Jones' attorney said her client "finds himself wrongly accused of a horrible crime" and the real killer remains at large.
Pennsylvania
Hacker pleads to crashing Sony game Web site
GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A 17-year-old honor student from western Pennsylvania has entered the equivalent of a guilty plea to four felony charges in juvenile court for using a computer virus to crash a Sony Entertainment Corp. gaming Web site.
The charges grew out of a federal grand jury investigation in San Diego, but authorities agreed to let the charges be handled by Westmoreland County Juvenile Court because of the boy's age.
Police in Greensburg, Pa. say the boy used his computer skills to cripple Sony's PlayStation site for 11 days in November 2008 after he was barred from it for cheating while playing a war game against others online.
The boy is living with his parents and attends Greater Latrobe Senior High School, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh. He'll be sentenced at an undetermined date.
Connecticut
Lawsuit: cops
didn't get care f
or man in crash
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) -- Fairfield police are being sued on allegations they failed to make sure a man got immediate medical attention for car crash injuries that led to his death a day after the accident.
Maureen Seirup of Fairfield filed the lawsuit in Bridgeport Superior Court last week, claiming police didn't do enough to save her husband's life.
Police say 54-year-old David Seirup was driving under the influence when his pickup truck crossed into oncoming traffic on Post Road and struck an SUV in January 2008. The crash critically injured a 42-year-old woman and her two children, but they survived.
Police say David Seirup refused medical attention but an officer did convince him to go to the hospital, where he died from a ruptured spleen.
Police say they took appropriate action.
Published: Fri, Feb 26, 2010
