National Roundup

 Pennsylvania

Guard gets life in heist, colleague’s slaying afterward
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A former Pennsylvania armored car guard has been sentenced to life in prison plus 10 to 20 years for killing his partner so he could steal $2.3 million from their truck.
Twenty-four-year-old Kenneth Konias Jr., of Dravosburg, was sentenced Tuesday.
A county judge in Pittsburgh convicted Konias in November of first-degree murder, robbery and theft.
He found that Konias killed fellow Garda Cash Logistics guard Michael Haines on Feb. 28, 2012, and stole the money they had collected from businesses earlier that day, most of it from Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino.
Haines’ body was found inside the idling truck under a bridge.
Two months later, Konias was arrested in Pompano Beach, Fla., after a prostitute tipped off police. Federal authorities recovered about $1.3 million of the stolen money.
 
Massachusetts
Young woman sentenced to life for killing friend 
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts woman convicted of killing her pregnant friend and stealing her unborn baby has been sentenced to life in prison.
Julie Corey was given the mandatory term of life without parole Tuesday after being found guilty last week of first-degree murder in Worcester Superior Court.
Corey was convicted of killing 23-year-old Darlene Haynes in 2009. Haynes’ body was found in her apartment, and investigators later discovered her unborn child was missing.
Corey and her boyfriend were found with the baby days later at a homeless shelter in Plymouth, N.H.
Several people, including Haynes’ father, who held his daughter’s ashes, spoke at the sentencing about how Haynes’ killing affected them.
Corey’s lawyers have argued that police failed to follow up on leads that could have implicated others.
 
Tennessee
Mother of ba­by missing faces murder charge
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A body discovered in a ditch over the weekend is that of a 7-week-old baby who went missing more than five weeks ago, and the infant’s mother has been charged with first-degree murder, Memphis Police said Monday.
The physical description and clothing on the body discovered Sunday in Millington, about a half-hour north of Memphis, matched that of Aniston Walker, who was reported missing Jan. 9, police said in a news release.
Police did not say how the baby died. 
The baby’s mother, Andrea Walker, told police that Aniston disappeared after she left the baby at home with her 3-year-old child while taking her 5-year-old child to school.
Police said Walker called the child’s father, who does not live at the same address, and he reported the baby missing. Walker then left the house again — leaving the 3-year-old alone in the house for an hour — as she traveled to several locations around the city.
Police Director Toney Armstrong said at the time that Walker was not as forthcoming with investigators as they could have wished.
Before Aniston’s body was discovered, Walker had pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated child abuse or neglect. She was free on $250,000 bond before she turned herself in on Monday.
Back in January, police searched for the baby for three days with no results. Then on Sunday, a motorcyclist stopped on the side of the road in Millington saw the child’s body in a ditch and called police.
Andrea Walker was charged with two counts: first-degree murder in the perpetration of a felony, to wit, aggravated child neglect or endangerment; and first-degree murder in the perpetration of a felony, to wit, aggravated child abuse.
 
Kansas
Suicide bomb plot case is ‘complex’ fed judge rules
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has designated the case of a man accused in a suicide bomb plot at a Kansas airport as “complex.”
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot made the ruling Tuesday in the case of Terry Loewen, a 58-year-old avionics technician facing terrorism-related charges. Such a designation eases speedy trial concerns and allows the parties more time to prepare their cases.
Belot noted in his decision that discovery is sizeable and involves declassified and sensitive evidence.
Loewen was arrested Dec. 13 after allegedly trying to bring a van filled with inert explosives onto the tarmac at Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport.
He has pleaded not guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to use an explosive device to damage property and attempting to give material support to al-Qaida.

Washington
White House sho­oter opposes terrorism label 
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for an Idaho man who has pleaded guilty to firing an assault rifle at the White House in 2011 don’t want a “terrorism enhancement” to apply to his case.
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez’ lawyers wrote in court filings Monday that the application of a “terrorism enhancement” is unconstitutional, though he accepted it as part of his guilty plea in September. An enhancement increases the penalty for a charge in terrorism cases
Lawyers also asked that Ortega-Hernandez be allowed to speak with the judge privately.
Federal sentencing guidelines recommend Ortega-Hernandez spend 24 to 27 1/2 years behind bars. But his lawyers compared his case to that of Joseph Reel, recently sentenced to nearly three years for rigging his Jeep to crash into a White House Secret Service guard booth.
 
Georgia
Agency says ju­dge can’t appoint his grandkid’s mom 
MACON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia agency says a Macon judge can’t appoint the mother of his grandchild to the bench.
The Telegraph of Macon reports Bibb County Chief Magistrate Billy Randall was told the state Judicial Qualifications Commission concluded that his nominee to fill a vacancy on the court violated nepotism rules.
Randall shared his nominee’s rejection with the newspaper but declined to name her. He said she’s the mother of a child that Randall’s son fathered out of wedlock. Therefore the judge says he believes the woman shouldn’t be considered a member of his family.
The county’s Superior Court judges must approve any appointments to vacant Magistrate Court positions. They had asked the Judicial Qualifications Commission for an opinion on the nominee.
Ortega-Hernandez is scheduled to be sentenced March 19.