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Feds: Guns, cash stashed in reputed mobster's home
Criminal Law Updates |
2010/03/25 09:18
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Federal officials say seven loaded firearms, jewelry and more than $700,000 in cash have been found in a secret compartment of a reputed mobster's home in suburban Chicago. An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday says the FBI and U.S. Marshals searched Frank Calabrese Sr.'s home Tuesday. The document says the stash was found in a basement wall, hidden behind a family portrait. Calabrese is serving a life sentence and has been ordered to pay millions after being convicted in a racketeering conspiracy that included more than a dozen murders. Calabrese's attorney says he doesn't know who stashed the items, and his client hasn't lived in the home since the mid-1990s. The U.S. Attorney's Office, FBI and U.S. Marshal's Service declined comment. |
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Condemned Texas man says DNA tests could clear him
Criminal Law Updates |
2010/03/24 14:09
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Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner insists DNA testing could exonerate him in the New Year's Eve 1993 slayings of his girlfriend and her two adult sons. Skinner is scheduled to die Wednesday in Huntsville. On Tuesday, he visited with his French-born wife as he waited for the U.S. Supreme Court or Texas Gov. Rick Perry to decide whether to stop his execution so DNA testing can be done. Skinner and his lawyers say test results could support his innocence claims. Skinner was convicted of killing 40-year-old Twila Jean Busby, 22-year-old Elwin "Scooter" Caler and 20-year-old Randy Busby in the Texas Panhandle town of Pampa. Prosecutors argue Skinner isn't entitled to testing of evidence that wasn't tested before his 1995 trial. |
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Court hearing 'Fatal Vision' appeal after 40 years
Criminal Law Updates |
2010/03/23 14:02
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A former Army doctor convicted in the 1970 slayings of his pregnant wife and two daughters is asking a Virginia-based federal appeals court for a new trial. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond will hear arguments in 66-year-old Jeffrey MacDonald's case Tuesday. MacDonald is serving three life terms. He has always maintained that four drug-crazed hippies were responsible for the deaths of his family in their Fort Bragg, N.C., home. The slayings shocked a nation still reeling from the Charles Manson murders and spawned the book and TV miniseries "Fatal Vision." MacDonald claims he has new evidence, including DNA tests and sworn statements by two people who are now dead, supporting his claim of innocence. |
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Woman sentenced after embezzling from law firm
Criminal Law Updates |
2010/03/22 14:21
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A woman was sentenced Monday after she pleaded guilty to stealing from the law firm she worked for. In January, 24-year-old Christina Coronado admitted she had stolen more than $30,000 from her former employer, Zimmerman Law Firm in Waco. She claimed the money was spent on her children and bills payments. In April 2008, Coronado embezzled the money while handling the payments and deposits of the law firm. Police say when she was caught, she quit her job and claimed to be moving away. Coronado is now on probation for the next 10 years and will be forced to pay back about $31,000. |
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Marine pleads not guilty to arranging rape online
Criminal Law Updates |
2010/03/04 17:14
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A California Marine accused of using Craigslist to arrange the rape of an ex-girlfriend in Wyoming has pleaded not guilty to five felonies. Jebidiah James Stipe of Twentynine Palms, Calif., entered his plea in Wyoming's Natrona County District Court on Wednesday. Prosecutors say Stipe posted an ad on Craigslist pretending to be a Casper woman and asking for someone to help play out a "rape fantasy." Prosecutors say a Bar Nunn man, Ty Oliver McDowell, replied to the posting. McDowell is accused of raping the woman inside her home on Dec. 11. He has pleaded not guilty to five felonies. A U.S. Marine Corps spokesman says Stipe was being discharged from the military "as a result of a pattern of misconduct" at the time of his arrest. |
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Court orders new look at Fla. murder case
Criminal Law Updates |
2010/03/01 15:02
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The Supreme Court has thrown out a Florida court ruling favorable to a former male model sentenced to death for fatally stabbing his friend and an office worker. The justices on Monday ordered the Florida Supreme Court to take a new look at the case of Thomas Rigterink in light of their ruling last week in another Florida case. The Florida court threw out Rigterink's conviction and death sentence for the slayings of Allison Sousa, 23, and Jeremy Jarvis, 24. The court cited problems with the Miranda rights warning police gave Rigterink before he confessed to the killings. But the Supreme Court last week declared Florida's Miranda warning sufficient, despite complaints it wasn't clear a suspect could have a lawyer present during questioning. |
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