National Roundup

California
Police won’t reopen mansion death probe

CORONADO, Calif. (AP) — Coronado police have rejected a request by the mother of a 6-year-old boy who died after falling down stairs at a California mansion to reopen the investigation into her son’s death.
U-T San Diego reports that representatives of Dina Shacknai released a letter from Coronado’s police chief and San Diego County’s chief medical examiner that reaffirmed Max Shacknai’s death was an accident.
The younger Shacknai plunged over a stairwell banister at his father’s mansion in July 2011 and died from brain injuries. His father’s girlfriend killed herself two days after the fall.
Investigators say the boy may have tripped while running, grabbed a chandelier, hit his back on the banister and fallen. Dina Shacknai hired an expert who said her son’s death was likely the result of an assault.

Illinois
Trial begins in Illinois girl’s 1957 killing

SYCAMORE, Ill. (AP) — The murder of a 7-year-old Illinois girl that haunted the nation more than 50 years ago went to trial Monday, starting with a prosecutor accusing the defendant of discarding the body like “a piece of garbage.”
Jack McCullough, 72 and a former Washington state police officer, has pleaded not guilty to the 1957 kidnapping and slaying of Maria Ridulph, of Sycamore. It’s one of the oldest cold-case murders brought to trial in the United States.
Maria’s friend, Kathy Sigman, told authorities that a young man calling himself “Johnny” had approached them while they were playing outside on Dec. 3, 1957, and offered to give the girls piggyback rides. Sigman left to get mittens and when she returned, Maria and the man were gone.
Prosecutors say McCullough, whose name was John Tessier in the 1950s, was “Johnny.”
“This ordinary night would end in horror,” said DeKalb County State’s Attorney Clay Campbell. “It would end with this defendant dumping her body in the cold, dark woods like a piece of garbage.”
Ridulph’s abduction captured national attention, and even then-President Dwight Eisenhower asked to be kept up-to-date. Her badly decomposed body was found months later 120 miles away from Sycamore.
Forensics examinations indicate that Ridulph was stabbed at least three times in the throat and the chest, prosecutors said Monday.
The slain girl’s friend, now in her 60s, is expected to be called to the stand to identify McCullough, who was arrested last year in Seattle and brought to Illinois.
“The defendant thought he could get away with it,” Campbell said Monday. “What he couldn’t count on was that Kathy Sigman could never forget his face.”
Public defender Thomas McCulloch says there’s no evidence linking his client to the crime.
“Jack McCullough did not commit this murder,” he said. “The reality is it has not been solved by charging Jack McCullough.”
The girl’s older brother, Charles Ridulph, was the first witness for prosecutors Monday, describing his younger sister as a smart and outgoing girl.
The defense opted for a bench trial, meaning that the judge rather than a jury will assess the evidence and decide on a verdict.
McCullough lived a few block from the Ridulph family home and was on an early list of suspects. But he had an alibi, saying that on the day the girl vanished, he traveled to Chicago to get a medical exam before enlisting in the Air Force.
He later moved out of the area, served in the Armed Forces and ultimately worked as a police officer in Washington and a security guard at a retirement home — where he was arrested on July 1, 2011.
Investigators reopened the case several years ago, after McCullough’s former girlfriend told them she found his unused train ticket from Rockford to Chicago from Dec. 3, 1957, the day Maria vanished.

Iowa
Woman who used teen sister in sex ring sentenced

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A 22-year-old Waterloo woman who used her teenage sister as a prostitute in a sex trafficking business has been sentenced to five years of supervised probation.
The Gazette of Cedar Rapids reports that Melody McCullom was sentenced Monday in Johnson County District Court.
McCullom, who had pleaded guilty to pimping and pandering involving a minor, could have faced up to 15 years in prison.
McCullom must start her probation in a residential treatment facility. She’ll remain in the Johnson County Jail, where she’s been since her arrest in April, until a bed opens up at a facility.
Police say McCullom admitted to using her 16-year-old sister in an online business she ran that brought in thousands of dollars a week.

Oklahoma
Attorney seeks  Mental eval in case of murder

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) — An attorney representing a Hulbert woman charged with manslaughter is seeking a mental evaluation for her client.
Attorney Angela Jones filed paperwork seeking the evaluation for Misty Richardson, who’s charged in the death of Herbert Lee Potts. Prosecutors allege that Richardson fatally shot Potts, then tried to hide his death by pouring acid and lye on his body.
Authorities discovered Potts’ body in a shallow grave in northwest Cherokee County in June.
The Tahlequah Daily Press reports that Richardson’s attorney said in court filings that her client may not be able to assist in her own defense.
Richardson has pleaded not guilty. She is due in court Oct. 10 for a preliminary hearing.

Massachusetts
Weymouth man goes on trial in double slaying

BROCKTON, Mass. (AP) — The trial of a Weymouth man accused of killing two homeless men seven years ago then showing off the severed hand of one of the victims at a party is under way.
The Patriot Ledger reports that jury selection in the trial of James Winquist began Monday in Brockton Superior Court.
Prosecutors say Winquist and another man beat and stabbed 47-year-old William Chrapan and 49-year-old David Lyons in May 2005 and dumped the bodies in a Hingham park.
They were arrested in August 2007.
Police say witnesses told them Winquist and the other suspect bragged and laughed about the slayings at a party, where they showed off Chrapan’s severed right hand.
Eric Snow, the other suspect, killed himself in jail in March.
Winquist’s attorney declined comment.