National Roundup

Alabama
Judge sentences Ala. man to 624 years in prison
DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — A southeast Alabama judge has sentenced a man to a 624-year prison term in a rape and kidnapping case.
The Dothan Eagle reports that Houston County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Moulton sentenced 25-year-old Mark Anthony Beecham to the prison term Tuesday.
Beecham received 99-year prison sentences for six felony convictions: first-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree rape and three counts of first-degree sodomy. He also received a 20-year sentence for a felony first-degree theft of property offense and a 10-year sentence for a felony first-degree bail jumping conviction.
A Houston County jury found Beecham guilty of all eight felony charges earlier this month.
The charges stemmed from offenses involving a woman that happened in December 2006.

Pennsylvania
Sandusky trial costs taxpayers $56,000 so far
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania county officials say taxpayers have spent nearly $56,000 on the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse trial so far, most of it on employee overtime.
Centre County commissioners say the bulk of the cost is associated with security supplied by sheriff’s deputies for the two-week trial and other pretrial court dates.
Taxpayers in the county also paid for meals and lodging for the jurors who convicted Sandusky of abusing 10 boys, including some on Penn State’s campus.
The Centre Daily Times reports that the current tab is $55,930. But Sandusky still must be sentenced, so the cost is expected to rise.
Centre County Administrator Tim Boyde says the county will seek reimbursement from the state attorney general’s office. Taxpayers will still foot the bill if the attorney general’s office agrees.

New Jersey
Court turns away man in suit over polio vaccine
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s Supreme Court has ruled against a man in a lawsuit over a polio vaccine he received as an infant.
Jamie Gannon’s 2003 suit claimed the vaccine he was given in the mid-1970s contained a simian virus that caused a brain tumor. It named American Home Products Corporation, American Cyanamid Company and Lederle Laboratories.
The case initially was dismissed by judges at the state and federal level who said Gannon hadn’t proved the vaccine caused his cancer and couldn’t identify who manufactured it. An appeals court reversed those rulings in 2010.
In Wednesday’s 5-1 decision, the state Supreme Court held that Gannon couldn’t have proceeded with the lawsuit in state court because his similar action in federal court had been dismissed.

New Jersey
Insane mom in child’s strangling seeks freedom
TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) — A woman confined to a state psychiatric facility after being found not guilty by reason of insanity for strangling her 3-year-old son is ready for more freedom, a doctor has told a judge.
Dr. Peter Whitney Wolff, a psychiatrist at Taunton State Hospital, testified at a recommitment hearing Tuesday that Helen McLaughlin’s mental state has improved since she started taking an anti-psychotic medication eight months ago. He recommended that she be admitted to a group home that would give her more independence and more opportunities to leave hospital grounds unsupervised.
“She’s as closely bound to her treatment than any patient we have,” Wolff said in Taunton District Court
McLaughlin, 41, was known as Helen Kirk when prosecutors say she killed her son, Justin, in March 2005 because she thought he was the devil. A judge found McLaughlin not guilty by reason of insanity in 2007 and had her committed to the hospital.
The Plymouth district attorney’s office and her ex-husband oppose the relaxed restrictions.
Joe Kirk, a Carver firefighter, says he fears for the safety of himself and his family if McLaughlin is discharged.
“You just got to keep looking over your shoulder, I guess,” Joe Kirk told The Patriot Ledger.
A judge is expected to rule on the case within 10 days.

Mississippi
Appeals Court rejects petition in murder case
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Court of Appeals has rejected a petition from man originally convicted in 1977 of capital murder related to an armed robbery, kidnapping and slaying.
Charles Sylvester Bell was originally sentenced to death in the slaying of D.C. Haden, but that was overturned by a federal appeals court in 1982.
In 1984, Bell pleaded guilty to a new indictment of armed robbery as a habitual offender to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to serve 25 years on that charge and life imprisonment for the capital-murder conviction.
A Forrest County judge dismissed Bell’s petition for post-conviction relief in April 2011. Bell had claimed that he shouldn’t have been indicted on the same charge twice.
The Court of Appeals upheld the Forrest County judge’s decision in a ruling Tuesday.

North Carolina
Sergeant faces court-martial in death of soldier
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — A platoon sergeant from Texas faces court-martial at Fort Bragg this week in the death of a New York soldier in Afghanistan last year.
The Fayetteville Observer reported that Staff Sgt. Blaine G. Dugas Jr. of Port Arthur, Texas, is scheduled to face a court-martial Thursday.
The 36-year-old Dugas is accused of failure to prevent the mistreatment and abuse that officials say led to 19-year-old Pvt. Danny Chen’s suicide.
Chen shot himself in a guard tower at a small outpost in Afghanistan.
Defense attorney Guy Womack says Dugas had no knowledge of the hazing and mistreatment of Chen, who shot himself on Oct. 3.
“Staff Sgt. Dugas is an outstanding soldier and an outstanding leader,” Womack said. “If he had learned about it, he would have stopped it.”
Dugas is accused of failing to “foster a climate in which everyone is treated with dignity and respect, regardless of race,” according to court documents.
Two other soldiers have been tried in Chen’s death.
Spc. Ryan J. Offutt of Greenville, Pa., was sentenced to six months in prison, demotion to private and a bad conduct discharge following a plea agreement.
Sgt. Adam Holcomb of Youngstown, Ohio, was sentenced to 30 days in prison and the loss of one rank.