Court Roundup

Louisiana Court panel rejects killer mother's appeal THIBODAUX, La. (AP) -- A south Louisiana mother convicted of stabbing her two children to death has lost an appeal. Forty-two-year-old Amy Hebert was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2007 stabbing deaths of her 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. Her latest appeal was rejected by the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal, according to The Daily Comet of Thibodaux. New Orleans attorney Jane Beebe, in an appeal filed for Hebert, said defense witnesses established that she was insane at the time of the killings. However, a 1st Circuit panel noted that a prosecution doctor testified that Hebert could distinguish between right and wrong. And, the panel cited letters that Hebert wrote to her ex-husband and mother-in-law that showed a motive: anger at the potential that the children would be taken from her. On the question of whether the trial judge erred by refusing to allow testimony from a forensic expert that the knife patterns present on the bodies of the children and the family dog who was also killed were evidence of insanity, the judges ruled that the argument was without merit. Hebert was convicted in 2009. She was spared the death penalty because jurors could not agree on the sentence. District Judge John Barbera sentenced her to two terms of life in prison. Prosecutors argued at the trial that Hebert stabbed the children to get back at her ex-husband, Chad Hebert, because of an affair he had with another woman whom he subsequently married. Jurors were told Hebert stabbed her daughter more than 30 times in the back and chest and another 30 times in the scalp despite the girl's pleas for mercy. Experts said she then stabbed her autistic son about 50 times in the chest and back. Pennsylvania Suit: Police 'busted' sticker violates rights HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A central Pennsylvania woman is suing police over a "busted" sticker applied to her home before she had her day in court. Deana Perry has sued the Middletown Police Department, saying in part that officers unfairly labeled her by putting the bright yellow sticker on her window after a raid three years ago. The sticker read "SAY NO TO DRUGS" and "BUSTED" above the department's name and logo. The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reports Perry's husband was convicted on drug charges, but charges against her were dropped. Now she's suing in federal court, claiming her constitutional rights were violated. Middletown Police Chief Keith Reismiller declined to comment on the suit, but said the stickers have been in use since at least 1990. A conference is set for March 10. Massachusetts Va. woman guilty of stealing dead dad's pension BOSTON (AP) -- A Virginia woman has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston to stealing more than $300,000 from the federal government by collecting pension benefits intended for her dead father. Prosecutors say Venus Hammack's father died in 1999. Authorities say instead of informing the United States Office of Personnel Management of her father's death, she forged his signature on an address verification form so she could continue receiving annuity payments she was ineligible to receive. Prosecutors say the 55-year-old Mount Jackson, Va. resident collected a total of $314,744. She is scheduled to be sentenced May 12 on a charge of theft of public funds. She faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and three years of probation. A listed number for Hammack was not in service. Mississippi Court orders new trial in '05 Oxford slaying JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied a request by state prosecutors for a rehearing in the case of David Jackson Williams, who was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison for killing a college student two years earlier in Oxford. In November, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial, ruling that the trial judge erred in not instructing the jury on Williams' defense of assisted suicide. The state asked for a rehearing on the matter. The Supreme Court denied that request Thursday. Williams was convicted in Lafayette County Circuit Court in the death of Demetria Bracey of Jackson. Williams and Bracey were students at the University of Mississippi. He claimed the stabbing death was part of a mutual suicide pact. Oregon Man sentenced to life in fatal church shooting EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- A judge in Eugene, Ore., has sentenced a Lowell man to life in prison for shooting to death his wife's ex-husband inside his community's Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. The Register-Guard reports that Robert Riley Gonzales was sentenced Thursday in the death last May of Ken Mort, of Fall Creek. The 35-year-old Gonzales will have the chance for parole after 25 years. Gonzales has pleaded guilty last week to murder and to four kidnapping charges for holding Mort and three other church elders against their will. Lane County Judge Karsten Rasmussen also sentenced him to another six years and 10 months on the kidnapping charges. Prosecutors say the killing stemmed from bitterness over a disputed sexual abuse allegation against Gonzales. Texas Mentally ill man gets life for 2008 killing DALLAS (AP) -- A Texas judge has ordered life in prison for a mentally ill man convicted of killing a woman he wrongly thought was his estranged wife. Jurors in Dallas earlier Thursday convicted Juan Seghelmeble of murder in the 2008 death of a woman in Richardson who was stabbed 33 times. Gladys Rivera Reyes was walking home from work. Seghelmeble asked the judge, not a jury, to sentence him. The Dallas Morning News reports Judge Gracie Lewis considered the man's diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenic, but also noted the "extreme nature" of the slaying. Relatives say Seghelmeble was on disability for mental problems at the time of the killing. The judge last week ruled Seghelmeble was competent, after questions about his ability to assist his attorney led to a mistrial days earlier. Published: Mon, Feb 28, 2011