The court heard arguments in a case from Vermont in which the state Supreme Court threw out the assault conviction of career criminal Michael Brillon because his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial had been violated. Brillon was jailed for three years and went through six defense attorneys before his trial for hitting his girlfriend in the face.

The justices are trying to determine when delays caused by public defenders can amount to a constitutional violation and when governments can be held responsible since they're the ones who assign and pay the lawyers for indigent defendants.

As the lawyers for Brillon and Vermont recounted the actions of Brillon, his lawyers, the state's public defender office and the courts, it became clear that, as Justice David Souter said, "There's plenty of blame to go around."

For some other violations, criminal defendants are entitled to new trials. But when a defendant is deprived of a speedy trial, the Supreme Court has ruled that dismissal of the charges is the only remedy.

"Aren't you giving defense attorneys a perverse incentive" to delay, asked Justice Samuel Alito.

Forty states and 15 organizations — state governments, county governments, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a victim's rights' group — are backing the Vermont prosecutor's appeal of the ruling, worried that if it stands criminal suspects will try to game the system and get the result Brillon did.

Charles G. Martin, 43, of Glencoe, Ill., and Malibu, Calif., was arrested Tuesday night in the Los Angeles area, and John E. Walsh, 60, of Lake Forest was picked up Wednesday morning on a criminal complaint charging them with wire fraud.

A court order closed their One World Capital Group LLC in December 2007 and froze its last $636,815 of assets. The two men operated a "Ponzi-like" scheme diverting money out of customer accounts and into their pockets, prosecutors said.

The criminal complaint was filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday.

One World was formed in 2005 and had offices in Winnetka and New York, prosecutors said. Martin and Walsh misled customers and federal regulators to conceal the fact that they siphoned off money customers thought was being used for currency trades.

Credit card and bank records show Martin spent more than $1 million at a strip club and restaurants, nearly $1 million at hotels and $1 million renting private jets, prosecutors said. He also purchased a fleet of luxury vehicles, donated hundreds of thousands to celebrity charity events and hired bodyguards, they said.

But things quickly turned sour and divorce documents paint a bitter picture of Bruce Pardo's increasing desperation as he lost first his wife, then his job and finally the dog. By fall 2008, Pardo was asking a judge to have his ex-wife pay him support and cover his attorney's fees.

Pardo's downward slide ended Christmas Eve, when the 45-year-old electrical engineer donned a Santa suit and massacred nine people at his former in-laws' house in Covina, where a family Christmas party was under way. He then used a homemade device disguised as a present to spray racing fuel that quickly sent the home up in flames.

Pardo had planned to flee to Canada following the killing spree but suffered third-degree burns in the fire — which melted part of the Santa suit to him — and decided to kill himself instead, investigators said. His body, with a bullet wound to the head, was found at his brother's home about 40 miles away.

The rented compact car he had driven to his former in-laws house was rigged to set off 500 rounds of ammunition and later exploded outside his brother's home. No one was injured.

Police found a second car rented by Pardo late Saturday, but Covina police spokesman Lt. Pat Buchanan said the bomb squad did not find any explosives in that vehicle.

Teah Wimberly entered a written plea Thursday. She will be tried as an adult. If convicted, the 15-year-old could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison.

Authorities say Wimberly and 15-year-old Amanda Collette were longtime friends who had recently stopped speaking before Wimberly shot her at Dillard High School in November. She then ran to a nearby restaurant, called police and confessed.

Her lawyer has said Wimberly may need medication after a psychological evaluation found she had mental health issues.

Wimberly also pleaded not guilty to a count of carrying a firearm on school campus.

The gunman opened fire just before noon Sunday inside the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton, in northern New Jersey.

Officials say some 200 people were attending a service inside the house of worship.

The New Jersey State Police and Passaic County law enforcement agencies say they are hunting for the gunman.

A law enforcement official says said the shooting may be a result of domestic violence.

Members of the church are mostly first-generation immigrants and their children from Kerala, India.

Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer, 51, and a woman described as his companion, Terri Leavy, 42, have been held as material witnesses in California since their separate arrests in the kidnapping investigation. Cole Puffinburger was abducted Oct. 15 and found unharmed late on Oct. 18 on a Las Vegas street.

Tinnemeyer and Leavy were to appear before a federal magistrate on charges of interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises, said Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Gregory Brower.

Las Vegas police have characterized the boy's abduction as a message from "Mexican nationals" and methamphetamine traffickers aimed at Tinnemeyer, who police alleged made off with millions of dollars in drug money. Police said two gunmen posing as police officers tied up the boy's mother and her boyfriend and ransacked their home before taking the boy.

Tinnemeyer was arrested Oct. 17 in Riverside, Calif. Leavy was arrested Oct. 19 in Fontana, Calif.