Daily Briefs

Supreme Court turns down appeal in Michigan carjacking case

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from a Michigan man who said he was convicted of carjacking at age 18 after being forced to act as his own lawyer.

Omar Pouncy’s case has been up and down the federal court system. A judge in Detroit threw out his Genesee County conviction in 2016. But an appeals court reversed that decision.

The Supreme Court said Monday it won’t intervene.

Pouncy was sentenced in 2006 to more than 40 years in prison.

His appellate attorney, David Moffitt, says the case isn’t over. He says other issues that could tip the conviction are pending with U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman.

He predicts Pouncy will be exonerated.


Judge jails Detroit man whose sentence is many years overdue

DETROIT (AP) — A judge says she’s “trying to get to the bottom” of why a Detroit man hasn’t been sentenced yet for manslaughter, six years after he pleaded no contest to the charge.

Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway tells The Associated Press that the case is “very strange.”

Leroy Moon has been free on bond since his plea in 2011, although his plea deal called for a year in jail. Hathaway ordered him to jail Monday while she awaits a pre-sentence report on what the 78-year-old has been doing for all that time.

Moon was accused of shooting a man who urinated outside his fish market. He pleaded no contest to manslaughter after his murder trial ended in a mistrial.

He’ll get credit while being locked up until the next court hearing.


Michigan man gets probation for crash that killed daughters

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan man will serve a year of probation in connection with a drunken driving crash that killed his two adult daughters.

The Herald-Palladium reports that Michael Sutherland was also ordered to pay nearly $2,900 in fines and costs, complete 480 of community service and pay $34,000 in restitution to Pamela Lester.

Sutherland was driving with his wife, their two daughters who lived in Chicago and a man one of the daughters was dating when he disregarded a stop sign in December 2016. Lester’s truck wasn’t able to stop and collided with the vehicle.

Blood tests showed that Sutherland had a blood alcohol content of more than twice the legal limit for operating a vehicle.

Sutherland pleaded no contest in a plea deal last month to operating while intoxicated causing serious injury.

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