National Roundup

 Missouri

Autopsy shows close-ran­ge wound for Brown 
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Michael Brown’s official autopsy shows the 18-year-old was shot in the hand at close range during a struggle with the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot him, two experts said in a published report Wednesday.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch obtained the St. Louis County medical examiner’s autopsy and an accompanying toxicology report that shows Brown had used marijuana.
The newspaper reported that St. Louis medical examiner Dr. Michael Graham and another pathologist not involved in the investigation reviewed the report and said it indicates a wound to Brown’s hand came at close range.
Brown and officer Darren Wilson struggled inside Wilson’s SUV on Aug. 9 and Brown was shot once in the hand. Brown was killed outside the vehicle.
Graham told the Post-Dispatch that the autopsy report “does support that there was a significant altercation at the car.”
Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the autopsy offers no insight into why Wilson killed Brown.
The newspaper posted a copy of the autopsy and toxicology report on its website. Medical examiner’s office administrator Suzanne McCune confirmed the posted information was accurate but said her office won’t officially release the documents until the investigation is complete. The newspaper did not say where it obtained the documents.
Wilson remains on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation into the shooting that has sparked sometimes violent protests in Ferguson. On Tuesday, Gov. Jay Nixon appointed a special commission to look at how the region can move forward after the concerns raised by the shooting and its aftermath.
Wilson confronted Brown and Dorian Johnson as they walked back to Brown’s home from a convenience store. After the shooting, Brown died at the scene. Some witnesses have told authorities and news media that Brown had his hands raised when Wilson approached with his weapon and fired repeatedly.
Wilson’s attorney, James P. Towey, did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday.
 
Ohio
Mother held dead infant while talking to police 
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Authorities believe that a woman was holding her dead baby as she spoke to unwitting police and paramedics hours before she killed herself by running in front of a tractor-trailer on a busy interstate.
The Canton Repository reports that evidence indicates 20-year-old Kayelisa Martin’s son was already dead when she struck a fire hydrant with her mother’s car on Aug. 7 in Canal Fulton, outside of Canton.
Martin calmly provided information for an accident report while she held the infant, who was covered in blankets. Hours later, the Canton woman ran onto Interstate 77 to kill herself.
A Stark County coroner investigator says it appears Martin smothered the infant before the fire hydrant accident. Officials initially said the infant had no signs of trauma.
 
Vermont 
Man found guilty of luring, killing school teacher 
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A part-time snowplow driver was convicted Wednesday of luring a prep-school teacher out of her Vermont home under the guise of a broken down car, then killed her.
A jury rejected arguments by Allen Prue’s defense that his wife, Patricia Prue, killed 33-year-old Melissa Jenkins in a jealous rage on March 25, 2012.
Prosecutors said the Prues lured Jenkins from her home as part of a long-planned crime. Jenkins’ nude body was found the next day in the Connecticut River. She had been strangled.
Allen Prue, 32, cried when the jury’s verdict was announced after six hours of deliberations. His lawyer had argued his client was unaware of his wife’s plan to kill Jenkins.
Allen Prue was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy and attempted kidnapping in the death of Jenkins, a teacher at St. Johnsbury Academy.
Patricia Prue, 34, is being tried separately on an aggravated murder charge and other counts.
Prosecutors said Allen Prue gave a detailed confession to police that implicated both him and his wife.
Jenkins, a single mother, was reported missing on March 25, 2012, after her vehicle was found idling on her rural road with her 2-year-old son inside. The next day, her nude, strangled and beaten body was found in a remote spot.
Police were led to the couple by a business card for Prue’s plow business. The killing shocked the Northeast Kingdom, an area where violent crime is rare. The trials were moved out of Caledonia County.
Prue, who had plowed Jenkins’ driveway, and his wife were arrested two days after she was killed.
 
New Jersey
Agency w­e­ighs court bout vs. mobster’s kin 
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Transit is considering whether to continue to fighting a mobster’s family over a land deal.
The transit agency is challenging a jury verdict that found it owes Carmine Franco’s family more than $8 million for land acquired through condemnation. The parcel was needed for a rail tunnel project that Gov. Chris Christie eventually canceled.
NJ Transit had offered the family $990,000. A Hudson County jury valued it at more than $8 million.
Paul Fernicola, an attorney representing Franco’s family, tells The Record newspaper that NJ Transit undervalued the property, which he says has amazing views of Manhattan.
NJ Transit on Wednesday will decide whether to spend another $150,000 on legal fees.
Franco, who is 78, is in a federal prison for racketeering.
 
New York
Dec. 15 trial set for 2 in Amish girls kidnapping 
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A December trial date has been set for the couple charged with kidnapping two Amish girls from a roadside produce stand last summer in northern New York.
Twenty-five-year-old Nicole Vaisey and her boyfriend, 37-year-old Stephen Howells, are charged with sexually exploiting the Amish girls and another child between September 2013 and August 2014. Howells is additionally charged with six counts involving four children at other times.
A federal magistrate on Tuesday scheduled their trial to begin Dec. 15 in Syracuse.
The charges against the couple from Hermon include kidnapping and sexual abuse charges stemming from the August abduction of the 7- and 12-year-old Amish girls from their family farm stand in rural Oswegatchie, near the Canadian border.
The girls were set free the next day.