A state appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Los Angeles man found guilty of killing a 17-year-old girl and her 16-year-old brother, ruling that the judge in his trial admitted improper evidence.

City News Service says the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Monday that a judge wrongly allowed evidence that one of Williams' alibi witnesses was arrested in possession of a gun used in the killings.

The court said the evidence was prejudicial and the trial court abused its discretion.

A jury found Williams guilty of the 2004 killing of Shulma and Jason Ramos, and he was sentenced to life without parole.

Prosecutors said the teenagers were looking for a party with friends when a group of gang members that included Williams fired at their car.

An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to five counts of tampering with records after authorities say he tried to get homes he didn't own listed in his name.

The charges against David Halsell came after Hamilton County Auditor employees noticed several of Halsell's companies filing large amounts of ownership transfer requests.

Prosecutors looked into the properties and say some of the buildings were in foreclosure and others belonged to dead people.

A former state lawmaker who championed legislation fighting child pornography was sentenced Thursday to a five-year term for viewing nude images of underage girls.
Neil Cohen will serve the term either in prison or a mental hospital. The state Corrections Department will decide which venue. He could become eligible for release and be placed under intense supervision in several months.

Appearing pale and unsteady, Cohen did not speak during sentencing. His lawyer told the judge the former assemblyman has been suicidal and has several mental health issues, including chronic depression. He has been hospitalized for months, according to the lawyer, Mark Tuohey.

Judge Gerald Council imposed sentence in Mercer County Superior Court.

"This is a sad day," the judge said. "But for this incident, he had an unblemished record."

Cohen pleaded guilty in April.

He served 17 years in the state Legislature as a Democrat representing Union County. He resigned following his arrest in July 2008.

The former lawmaker admitted viewing images of underaged girls on computers in his legislative office and law office.

Anthony Picione, the deputy attorney general who prosecuted the case, said 34 images of girls in various stages of undress were found on the computers. He said authorities have been able to match some of the images to photos on the list of Missing and Exploited Children.

The former technology chief for the City of New Orleans pleaded guilty Monday in a fraud scheme that prosecutors said brought him more than $860,000 in bribes and kickbacks, paid by a businessman to whom he allegedly steered $4 million in city contracts.

Greg Meffert, at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of filing a false tax return — two of the 63 counts in the indictment. Charges against his wife, Linda, also indicted in the case, will be dropped pending her participation in a pretrial diversion program.

Meffert faces up to eight years in prison.

The Mefferts were charged just over a year ago. The government alleged that Meffert took bribes and kickbacks from his former business partner, St. Pierre, to give St. Pierre's technology companies no-bid contracts at City Hall.

Authorities say 21-year-old Ryan Sullivan, of Derry, N.H., is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Salem, N.H. District Court as a fugitive from justice.

Sullivan is wanted in connection with the Friday stabbing of 22-year-old Randall Rawson. Rawson was stabbed in the neck in Haverhill, Mass. at about 10 p.m. on Friday and died at a Boston hospital on Saturday.

Sullivan was arrested Saturday at a rest area on Interstate 93. Once extradited to Massachusetts, he faces a murder charge.

A Colorado pot grower who tried unsuccessfully to use state medical marijuana law in his defense on federal drug charges has said he now plans to plead guilty.

Christopher Bartkowicz, of Highlands Ranch, was scheduled to change his plea on Thursday. Court spokesman Jeff Dorschner said Bartkowicz told the court he planned to plead guilty, though the plea change won't be final until the hearing.

Bartkowicz faces federal marijuana cultivation charges after he showed off his marijuana growing business to a TV reporter in February. Soon after Denver's KUSA-TV promoted the story in February, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided Bartkowicz's home and seized more than 200 plants.

Bartkowicz has changed his plea before. He first changed his plea to not guilty in April and asked the judge to let him use Colorado's 2000 constitutional amendment allowing medical marijuana rules in his defense.