National Roundup

South Dakota Murder conviction upheld in assisted suicide PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction of a Rapid City man who argued he did not commit murder because he was only helping a friend commit suicide. Robert Goulding was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the 2008 shooting death of his friend, Allen Kissner, near Sheridan Lake in the Black Hills. Kissner wanted to die because he was in chronic, terminal pain and likely was returning to prison. Court documents say Goulding shot Kissner at Kissner's request. Goulding argued he should be convicted of assisting in a suicide, not murder. The Supreme Court says the trial judge was correct to instruct the jury that a death is not a suicide when someone else performs the overt act causing the death. Illinois Man accused in girlfriend's suspected heroin death MOUNT VERNON, Ill. (AP) -- A Carbondale man is jailed on $250,000 bond on charges linked to the suspected heroin overdose of a girlfriend found dead in a Mount Vernon convenience store's bathroom. Jefferson County prosecutors charged 41-year-old Aaron Burton with drug-induced homicide and domestic battery with bodily harm in Monday's death of 25-year-old Lacey Kimpel of Mount Vernon. Kimpel's body was found after a store employee called police after a woman entered the restroom and didn't come out for about an hour. Burton couldn't be reached for comment. He doesn't have a listed home telephone number, and online court records don't show whether he has an attorney. Services for Kimpel will be at 1 p.m. Friday at Newell Funeral Home in Mount Vernon, followed by burial in Pleasant Hill Cemetery. Illinois Judge convict man in Decatur child's death DECATUR, Ill. (AP) -- A 26-year-old Decatur man faces a sentence of up to 100 years in prison after a judge found him guilty of beating a 6-month-old girl to death. Macon County Associate Judge Timothy Steadman convicted Emerson Burns of first-degree murder Wednesday after a bench trial. He'll be sentenced July 28. Burns was accused of killing 6-month-old Amylah Allende-Smith while the baby's mother was at work. The (Decatur) Herald & Review reports that Burns told the police six versions of what happened and blamed her death on three other people. Authorities say he also persuaded several women to lie to police. The judge called the lies told in the case "disgusting." And Steadman said: "If there were to be an award for lying in this case, it would go to the defendant." California 7 face trial in beating; victim also links O'Neal LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Members of a Los Angeles street gang are facing charges in the 2008 beating of a man who claimed he had a sex tape of Shaquille O'Neal and that the former NBA star was behind the attack. Sheriff's department records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times showed investigators probed allegations that O'Neal was connected to the attack, but O'Neal denied any involvement and has not been charged, the paper reported Wednesday. Also, O'Neal is not named in the criminal complaint. Robert Ross reported being beaten in 2008 but details of the case only came to light publically this week in a preliminary hearing in which Ross testified against seven members of the Main Street Crips facing kidnapping, robbery and assault charges. According to sheriff's report, Ross told investigators he was kidnapped at gunpoint by Main Street Crips gang members in West Hollywood in February 2008 and taken to the home of the gang's alleged leader Ladell Rowles. He said the gang members beat him, stole $15,000 in cash and some jewelry. Ross said Rowles demanded the purported videotape of O'Neal having sex with a woman other than his wife and $100,000, according to the sheriff's investigative report. Ross told investigators in 2008 that he believed O'Neal was behind the attack because of a business deal gone bad and because O'Neal believed he had the tape, the Times reported. Ross later told police he was "bluffing" about the tape. Detectives found phone records showing a "flurry of calls" between Rowles and O'Neal's business partner Mark Stevens around the time of the February 2008 incident, the sheriff's report said. O'Neal and Stevens both denied any involvement in the attack when interviewed by sheriff's investigators in 2008, the Times said. Prosecutors said they have no evidence that a sex tape exists. In a July 2009 letter asking for leniency in Ross' sentencing for unrelated federal drug and firearm charges, a sheriff's captain wrote that Ross was cooperating with law enforcement as a victim and witness in an incident that may implicate a "celebrity," the Times reported. Attorney Nicholas Tonsich, who represented O'Neal and Stevens, did not immediately respond to an Associated Press call for comment. O'Neal retired this month after 19 seasons, several of them with the Los Angeles Lakers. Ross is expected to resume his testimony when the preliminary hearing continues in July. New York NYPD probing online post on Tupac shooting in '94 NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City police have begun an investigation into an online posting supposedly from a convicted felon who claims to have shot and robbed slain rapper Tupac Shakur. Police spokesman Paul Browne said Wednesday if police determine the post is legitimate they will seek to interview the prisoner. The claim was posted on the website AllHipHop.com. The person says he was paid $2,500 by another hip hop mogul to rob Shakur outside a studio in Manhattan in 1994. Shakur suffered gunshot wounds but eventually recovered. He was later killed in 1996 in an unsolved slaying. Much of the post is laced with bitterness directed at the person the writer says hired him to carry out the crime. The writer says that person has wrongly accused him of being a government informant. "Now I would like to clear up a few things, because the statute of limitations is over, and no one can be charged, and I'm just plain tired of listening to your lies," the writer says, adding that the mogul also allowed him to keep some of the jewelry he stole from Shakur. "I still have as proof the chain we took in the robbery," he writes. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, a person by the same name as in the post is serving life in prison and is housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Published: Fri, Jun 17, 2011