Court Roundup

South Carolina Man gets life sentence for $10 crack deal GAFFNEY, S.C. (AP) -- A 28-year-old Cherokee County man who sold $10 worth of crack to an undercover informant has been sentenced to life in prison without parole under the state's repeat offender law. Prosecutors say James R. Byers Jr. was sentenced Wednesday after he was convicted of third offense distribution of crack cocaine and distribution of crack cocaine within a half mile of a school or park. Byers' prior criminal record includes five drug convictions. Prosecutors say Byers' sold the crack to an informant in August 2009 near an elementary school. Cherokee County sheriff's deputies videotaped the transaction. Louisiana Judge reduces charge in Marine's death LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) -- State District Judge Ron Ware threw out a jury's second-degree murder verdict against a man accused of killing a Marine -- and substituted it with a guilty verdict of manslaughter. On Wednesday, Ware sentenced Bryce Perkins to serve 30 years in prison -- 20 of which are to run without the benefit of parole -- because the crime was committed with a firearm. The American reports that prosecutors say they will appeal. Twenty-year-old Daniel Gueringer was killed while attempting to break up a fight at an Independence Day party in 2009. Ware said he felt Perkins did not have the specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm on anyone when he fired the gun. The shots killed Gueringer, a Marine home on leave. Louisiana 2 suspects charged in murder to be tried together VIDALIA, La. (AP) -- Two of the three men charged in the 2010 death of a 25-year-old Ferriday man will be tried together. State District Judge Kathy Johnson ruled Wednesday to consolidate the second-degree murder trials of Bryant Lakeith Bethley and Daniel Durans Butler. District Attorney Brad Burget requested the consolidated trial because both Bethley and Butler's testimonies matched and were void of any accusations of blame toward the other. Prosecutors say the third man involved in the case, Reginald Butler, will face trial alone, because he was the alleged driver of the vehicle that fled the scene after the incident and not involved in the shooting. The Natchez Democrat reports the murder charges stem from the fatal shooting of Reginald Green, who was shot he sat in a parked SUV. Maryland Man gets 12 years in attack on campers FREDERICK, Md. (AP) -- A Hagerstown man accused of terrorizing four teenagers at a campsite last year is going to prison. Twenty-two-year-old Zachary Lee pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of attempted armed robbery. A Frederick County judge sentenced Lee to 12 years behind bars for his role in the attack last April at a campsite along the Monocacy (mah-NAH'-kah-see) River near Tuscarora. Lee is the final defendant in the case. Twenty-two-year-old Nicholas Cann of Frederick was sentenced to 12 years in prison in February. Co-defendant George Carroll of Frederick was sentenced in November to 18 years in prison. The victims told police that the defendants, who were camping nearby, threatened them with machetes and a baseball bat and took their money. Wisconsin Former lawmaker sues over legislative job MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A former state lawmaker has filed a lawsuit claiming she wasn't hired for a legislative job because she's a Republican. Sheryl Albers says Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan (poh-KAN') decided to hire a younger man for a non-partisan job as clerk of the Joint Finance Committee in 2009. The 55-year-old Albers filed an age discrimination complaint with the state Equal Rights Division last year. Her attorney, Jeff Olson, says it was during the investigation into the complaint that they learned it was politics, not age, that cost Albers the job. Olson says Albers was exercising her constitutional rights by being an active Republican. The state Department of Justice is defending Pocan. Spokesman Bill Cosh declined comment. The State Journal says Albers is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Idaho No death penalty in attorney's shooting death BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A 42-year-old southwest Idaho man charged with shooting his wife's boss has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and prosecutors say they won't seek the death penalty. Robert Dean Hall of Meridian entered his plea Wednesday in the March 11 shooting death of attorney Emmett Corrigan. Prosecutors say Corrigan and Hall's wife, Kandi, met with an attorney hours before the shooting so she could get information about filing for divorce and getting an order of protection. Police say Hall confronted his wife and Corrigan at a Meridian Walgreens. Corrigan was shot in the head and chest. On Wednesday, Kandi Hall asked the court to allow her to have contact with her husband. The judge denied that request because investigators say she is an eyewitness to the shooting. New Mexico Federal jury convicts real estate agent ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- A federal jury has convicted an Albuquerque real estate agent of using false pretenses and misrepresentations to obtain more than $5.5 million in loans. Jurors on Wednesday convicted 51-year-old Kevin Powers of 17 counts of wire fraud. He faces up to 20 years' imprisonment and a maximum $250,000 fine on each count when he's sentenced July 18. According to an indictment, Powers submitted loan applications with false information. It says he also concealed from the lenders that some of the loan proceeds would be returned to the buyers, largely to make mortgage payments until the properties could be resold. The indictment said the loan proceeds were wired from lenders. Authorities say the scheme involved real estate transactions in Albuquerque in 2006 and 2007. Washington Judge deciding Walla Walla purple octopus case WALLA WALLA, Wash. (AP) -- A Walla Walla County Superior Court judge is deciding whether a purple octopus mural over a downtown Walla Walla toy store is art or a commercial sign. The Union-Bulletin reports Judge Donald W. Schacht heard arguments Wednesday in the lawsuit filed by Inland Octopus toy store owner Bob Catsiff. He's trying to save his mural on constitutional grounds. The city says the purple octopus is a violation of the sign code. A hearing examiner ruled against the store owner in November and the fine is growing at $100 a day. Florida Death for drifter convicted in forest slaying TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- A drifter convicted of killing a woman whose beheaded body was found in a national forest has been sentenced to death. Gary Michael Hilton was sentenced Thursday morning. He was convicted in February of killing 46-year-old Cheryl Dunlap. Days later, a jury unanimously recommended a death sentence for Hilton. Dunlap -- a nurse and Sunday school teacher -- was found dead in north Florida's Apalachicola National Forest, where Hilton had camped. Hilton already has been sentenced to life in prison in Georgia after pleading guilty to killing 24-year-old hiker Meredith Emerson. Her headless body was found in a wooded area where Hilton had camped in north Georgia. He still is a suspect in three other killings in Florida and North Carolina. Published: Fri, Apr 22, 2011