Texas' highest criminal court has thrown out the 25-year prison sentence a Houston jury gave a woman convicted of murder for stabbing her tied-up husband 193 times.

Susan Wright was convicted in March 2004 of killing her 34-year-old husband, Jeffrey Wright. His body was found buried in the yard behind their Harris County home.

Susan Wright, a former topless dancer, contended she acted in self-defense after years of abuse.

In a ruling Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals says her lawyers were deficient during the punishment phase of the trial.

An attorney for Wright did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

A New Jersey man faces up to 40 years in prison when he's sentenced for twice traveling to western Pennsylvania to have sex with a teenage girl he met on the Internet.

Twenty-nine-year-old Andrew Luko, of Bridgeton, N.J. pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts each of statutory sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault.

Cambria County prosecutors say Luko came to Pennsylvania twice in 2007 to have sex with the Johnstown-area girl in motels. She was 14 when he first visited in March of that year, and she had turned 15 by the time he visited for three days that July.

Police tracked Luko using motel records and his vehicle registration.

A man accused of badly beating a teenage actor on a San Francisco bus has pleaded not guilty to felony assault and robbery charges.

Prosecutors say 18-year-old Uluao Mase was carrying a loaded gun when he and three others beat 18-year-old Christopher Borgzinner and stole his wallet and iPod. Two others suspects, ages 15 and 16, are also in custody. Police are seeking a fourth.

Police say Borgzinner was going to an acting class when the suspects asked if his red sneakers meant he was in a gang. Despite replying no, police say the suspects pummeled Borgzinner, who sustained fractures under both eyes.

Borgzinner plays a gang member in "La Mission," a new film starring Benjamin Bratt.

Mase is being held on $200,000 bail.

O.J. Simpson's convicted co-defendant got a fair trial and wasn't a victim of "spillover prejudice" as he alleges in his appeal, a prosecutor told the Nevada Supreme Court on Friday.

"A defendant 'is not entitled to a perfect trial, but only a fair trial,'" wrote Clark County District Attorney David Roger, citing state and federal case law supporting his position that Clarence "C.J." Stewart should remain in prison for his role in a September 2007 armed hotel room heist.

Stewart's lawyer, Brent Bryson, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Bryson still has a chance to answer the district attorney's 46-page response to Stewart's initial request for the court to overturn Stewart's conviction.

The former Simpson golfing buddy claims he should have been tried separately from the former NFL football star, whose acquittal in the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, in Los Angeles was dubbed the "trial of the century."

Stewart also maintains that evidence was improperly used against him, and that the jury foreman hid a bias toward Simpson until after the pair were convicted and sentenced.

A La Fox woman has been convicted of stealing $137,237 from the St. Charles law firm of Day and Tietz in 2004, it was announced Tuesday.

Ann M. Day, 52, of the 1N600 block of Harley Road, was convicted Friday by Kane County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Sheldon. Testimony was heard in May. Sheldon issued his verdict in writing.

Day was found guilty of 12 counts of theft (four of them a Class 1 felony and eight a Class 2 felony) and 16 counts of forgery (a Class 3 felony), according to the Kane County State's Attorney's Office.

Day was arrested in late February of 2005 by St. Charles police after a four-month investigation. Her law partner, Karen Tietz, called police when irregularities in the firm's accounting surfaced.

The two women had formed the firm in January 2004. They knew each other from participation at Hosanna! Lutheran Church in St. Charles, for which Day provided legal services.

From January to October 2004, Day took checks made out to the firm and altered them to make them payable to herself, including forging her partner's name. She would then deposit them in her personal account. She also wrote checks to herself from the firm's checking account and then altered the firm's ledger to misrepresent the purpose of the reimbursement. Additionally, she asked clients to make checks payable to her, not the firm.

Day faces a sentence of probation or between four and 15 years in prison. She remains free on $2,500 bond. No sentencing date has been announced.

State police say a secretary has been charged in connection with the theft of more than $700,000 from the Hudson Valley law firm where she worked.

Troopers say 43-year-old Mary Merten of New Paltz was charged Wednesday with grand larceny, forgery, falsifying business records and possession of a forged instrument.

The arrest follows a five-month investigation into an embezzlement scheme at a local attorneys office where Merten worked as a legal secretary and bookkeeper.

Investigators say more than $700,000 was stolen from corporate and personal accounts associated with the firm. The law firm's name wasn't released.

Merten was being held Thursday in Ulster County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail. It couldn't be immediately determined if she had a lawyer.