Florida: Jury selection set for Buju Banton's retrial
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Fresh off a Grammy win, Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton is set to stand trial again in federal court in Florida.
Jury selection began Monday in Tampa. Banton is accused of conspiring to buy cocaine from an undercover officer and faces up to life in prison.
The jury deadlocked in his first trial in September.
His 2010 album "Before the Dawn" won the Grammy award for best reggae album Sunday. He recorded the album in Jamaica before his December 2009 arrest.
In a statement Monday, Banton said winning the Grammy shows that his music transcends borders and "people are now paying attention to what I'm saying in-depth."
He said music is his life and an art form "that cannot be denied any living soul."
Pennsylvania: Man faces murder charge in girl's death
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A man jailed on charges that he was drunk and speeding when he allegedly causes a Pittsburgh crash that killed a 7-year-old girl is now facing a third-degree murder charge because prosecutors say his actions were so reckless as to be malicious.
Twenty-three-year-old Travis Isiminger, of Holbrook, Greene County, has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces, including drunken driving, reckless endangerment, reckless driving while intoxicated -- and the murder charge Allegheny County prosecutors added at his preliminary hearing on Friday. He was ordered to stand trial after the hearing.
Police say Isiminger was more than twice as drunk as the law permits when he crashed head-on into car Dec. 4, killing 7-year-old Lexa Cleland and injuring the driver and the little girl's 11-year-old sister.
Online court records don't list an attorney for Isiminger.
Maine: Man facing trial on church fraud charges
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- A Scarborough man is facing trial in Maine on charges he defrauded a New York church out of $400,000 as part of an investment scam.
Fifty-one-year-old Darren McDunnah is due to go on trial March 2 in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland on charges of felony theft by deception and securities fraud.
Prosecutors say that in September 2004 McDunnah promised the Addulum Gospel Church in Cobleskill, N.Y., $1.6 million in return for an investment of $400,000. Instead he kept the money for himself.
McDunnah was first indicted five years ago and he was arrested last year in Arizona. He has been in jail since May.
McDunnah told the Portland Press Herald in a jailhouse interview that he expects to be exonerated of all the charges against him.
Iowa: Convenience store chain fights Subway over 'footlong'
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- An Iowa convenience-store chain wants a federal jury to rule that the term "footlong" belongs in the general English vocabulary and should not be the special property of Subway and its 12-inch-long sub sandwiches.
Ankeny-based Casey's General stores has filed a petition in U.S. District Court, seeking a judgment that the term "footlong" is generic and violates nobody's trademark or patent, pending or otherwise.
The Des Moines Register says Subway had written Casey's about three weeks ago, threatening legal action because Casey's is using the term "footlong" on signs and menus in one of its sandwich promotions.
Subway for years has used the phrase "$5 footlong" or "five-dollar footlong" for advertising at its 34,000 stores.
Subway's lawyers haven't filed a response yet.
New Mexico: Man from Mexico enters plea in federal court in NM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- A resident of Mexico has pleaded guilty to a four-count indictment in federal court in New Mexico.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales says 30-year-old Hernan Canseco-Vasquez of Oaxaca, Mexico, entered his plea earlier this month to charges of conspiracy, transporting illegal immigrants and re-entry of a deported immigrant.
Canseco-Vasquez remains in federal custody pending sentencing.
A criminal complaint says he was stopped in southern New Mexico's Hidalgo County last November for speeding on U.S. 80.
The officer called the U.S. Border Patrol after four people in the car fled and the officer discovered a fifth person locked in the trunk.
Agents found Canseco-Vasquez and the three others hiding in brush about two miles from the car.
Authorities say they had no documents permitting them to enter the United States.
Alaska: State labor lawyer charged in alleged shoe theft
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Authorities in Anchorage say a 31-year-old state labor attorney is charged with stealing shoes from a Fred Meyer store.
The state Law Department said attorney Erin Pohland is the woman charged.
According to police in a criminal complaint filed in January, store surveillance footage showed Pohland and another woman -- 30-year-old Skye McRoberts -- putting $1,020.08 worth of shoes in their carts.
According to the complaint, the women concealed the shoes in shopping bags and cut off electronic theft-prevention tags in the Dec. 30 incident.
Authorities said McRoberts ended up with all the shoes and pushed a cart past the checkout lanes and out the door without paying.
McRoberts, who was stopped by loss-prevention guards, is charged with theft. Police said McRoberts wouldn't tell them the name of her accomplice.
Authorities said that on Jan. 19, a detective was preparing for a monthly meeting between police and loss-prevention guards when a police department clerk thought she recognized Pohland in a picture from Fred Meyer surveillance cameras.
According to court documents, the clerk and a juvenile justice officer confirmed soon after that it was Pohland.
Published: Tue, Feb 15, 2011
