Connecticut
Ex-death row inmate gets life without parole
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A former death row inmate whose appeal resulted in capital punishment being eliminated in Connecticut has been resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Hartford Superior Court Judge Carl Taylor sentenced 36-year-old Eduardo Santiago on Friday for a 2000 murder-for-hire killing in West Hartford. Prosecutors say Santiago shot 45-year-old Joseph Niwinski in exchange for a pink-striped snowmobile with a broken clutch.
Santiago, whose death sentence previously had been overturned, was facing the possibility of it being reinstated when the state Supreme Court ruled on his appeal in August. A divided court found that capital punishment "no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency" and doesn't serve any penal purpose.
The state had eliminated the death penalty in 2012, except for those who were already facing capital punishment.
Massachusetts
Boston library recovers stolen map from 1612
BOSTON (AP) - A centuries-old map compiled by French explorer Samuel de Champlain and believed to be among dozens stolen more than a decade ago from the Boston Public Library has been recovered, library officials said Friday.
The map, compiled in 1612 and named Carte Geographique de Nouvelle, was found at a New York City arts dealer, where it was on sale for $285,000, the library said. It was identified by Ronald Grim, curator of the library's Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, who spotted it in an antiques publication over the summer.
"I was stunned to come across the map, and thrilled to determine it indeed belongs to the Boston Public Library," Grim said in a statement. "I'm proud it's been returned to its rightful home."
The 17-inch-by-30-inch map depicts the coast of New England and the Canadian maritime provinces and an area as far west as the Great Lakes, part of a region once known as New France. Champlain made numerous voyages to the region in the early 17th century and included the map in a book published in Paris in 1613.
Grim, shortly after joining the staff in 2005, began an inventory of the library's rare map collection and discovered that 69 were missing from atlases and books. The inventory was prompted, the library said, by the arrest of E. Forbes Smiley III, an antique map dealer who was arrested in June 2005 on charges of stealing maps from Yale University.
In 2006, Smiley was sentenced in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut, to 3 1/2 years in prison after admitting he stole about 100 maps from several institutions including the New York and Boston public libraries, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Yale and Harvard University libraries and the British Library in London.
Authorities said at the time that Smiley helped investigators recover many of the maps, stolen over eight years, including 34 that were returned to the Boston library. Federal prosecutors cited his cooperation in proposing a reduced sentence.
The Champlain engraving was not among the maps that Smiley admitted taking.
The library did not identify the New York antique dealer that was selling the map, but it said the dealer had been retained by a third party to sell it on commission and fully cooperated with the recovery.
To confirm the identity of the map, Grim said he compared it with a digital image taken from a previous photograph. The document had distinctive markings, including tears on the left side and a hole just above one tear.
Virginia
Man sentenced for woman's murder; body never found
LANCASTER, Va. (AP) - A Virginia man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for killing his girlfriend, whose body was never found.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that a judge followed the jury's recommendation Friday, giving 54-year-old James Todd Kessler the maximum sentence for second-degree murder and concealment of a body.
Kessler was convicted in August in the death of 43-year-old Claudine J. Gifford in Lancaster County. The two were last seen together at a Lancaster bar on July 6, 2014.
In court Friday, Kessler continued to maintain his innocence. Defense attorney Craig Cooley had argued at trial that Gifford might still be alive and living under another woman's identity.
Cooley said Friday that he plans to appeal.
Tony Spencer, the special prosecutor in the case, called the sentence "completely appropriate."
New Mexico
Lawsuit: Deputies illegally raided home, held mom
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A Texas couple says deputies in military-style gear illegally raided their New Mexico home over a low-level witness case and unlawfully held a U.S. citizen mother who authorities believed was an immigrant in the country illegally.
A lawsuit moved to U.S. District Court this week says Santa Fe County Sheriff's deputies stormed the home of Luis and Norma Ramirez in October 2013.
Luis Ramirez says deputies were searching for the Mexican-born Norma Ramirez, who has been ordered to testify in a restraining order case.
Documents say deputies arrested Norma Ramirez after pointing assault rifles at her and the couple's 11-year-old daughter.
She was released after six days.
Luis Ramirez says the family moved from Santa Fe to Lubbock, Texas, out of fear.
Santa Fe County Attorney Department Administrator Robin Gurule says the county doesn't comment on pending litigation.
Published: Mon, Dec 07, 2015
