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Jacksonville man guilty of lesser counts in music shooting
Law Firm Press |
2014/02/17 16:55
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A 47-year-old software developer was convicted Saturday of attempted murder for shooting into a carful of teenagers after an argument over what he called their “thug music,” but jurors couldn’t agree on the most serious charge of first-degree murder.
After more than 30 hours of jury deliberations over four days, a mistrial was declared on the murder charge that Michael Dunn faced in the fatal shooting of one of the black teens. The 12 jurors found him guilty of three counts of attempted second-degree murder and a count of firing into an occupied car.
Dunn was charged with fatally shooting 17-year-old Jordan Davis, of Marietta , Ga. , in 2012 after the argument over loud music coming from the SUV occupied by Davis and three friends outside a Jacksonville convenience store. Dunn, who is white, had described the music to his fiancee as “thug music.”
Dunn showed no emotion as the verdicts were read. Each attempted second-degree murder charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, while the fourth charge he was convicted on carries a maximum of 15. A sentencing date will be set at a hearing next month. |
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Maine's high court to hear environmental dispute
Law Firm Press |
2014/02/13 15:28
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Maine's highest court is scheduled to hear arguments in a legal dispute over the environmental cleanup of the former HoltraChem Manufacturing Co. plant in Orrington.
The Portland Press Herald reports that the Supreme Judicial Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday on an appeal by Mallinckrodt LLC, a St. Louis-based pharmaceutical company that inherited responsibility for the site after HoltraChem went bankrupt. Mallinckrodt is seeking to overturn an order that it must complete an environmental cleanup that could cost $250 million.
The chemical plant used mercury in its manufacturing processes and dumped waste directly into the Penobscot River. The plant later deposited waste in five landfills on its 235-acre campus.
Mallinckrodt contends in its appeal that the Maine Board of Environmental Protection overstepped its legal authority in ordering the cleanup.
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Ky. high court to hear death penalty appeal
U.S. Court News |
2014/02/13 15:26
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The Kentucky Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case of a death row inmate who has twice won a new trial.
The justices on Thursday will take up the case of 57-year-old Michael Dale St. Clair, who was convicted in the 1991 slaying of distillery worker Frank Brady in Bullitt County.
St. Clair has won three trials in the case, which has lingered for years in appeals.
St. Clair and another inmate escaped from an Oklahoma prison before going on a multistate spree that ended in Kentucky with Brady's death. St. Clair also faces a murder charge in New Mexico for the 1991 kidnapping and slaying of paramedic Timothy Keeling.
St. Clair also received a second death sentence for capital kidnapping from the Hardin County Circuit Court. |
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California teen pleads not guilty in newborn death
U.S. Court News |
2014/02/10 14:44
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A teenager in Central California pleaded not guilty Thursday to killing her newborn baby, who was found wrapped in plastic bag last week under a bathroom sink.
Gloria Santos Mendoza, 17, was charged as an adult on a single count of first-degree murder, said Madera County Deputy District Attorney Rachel Cartier. If convicted, Mendoza could spend 25 years to life in state prison.
The teenager went to a hospital Friday suffering from postpartum bleeding, but she denied giving birth, Madera County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Erica Stuart said. It took investigators hours to learn where she lived because of a language barrier. The girl speaks a dialect from Oaxaca, Mexico.
Authorities found the dead baby under the sink at the girl's Madera home. Stuart said that when the girl was confronted, she changed her story and said the child was born dead. But Stuart said an autopsy determined the baby was born alive.
Mendoza's attorney, Michael Fitzgerald, said that his first impression was that the prosecution's decision to charge her as an adult with first-degree murder seemed excessive.
The teenager came to Madera from her village in Mexico three days before giving birth, Stuart said. Mendoza remains jailed on $1 million bail. |
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