Louisiana
Selfies snapped on stolen cellphone used to ID thief
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) - A robbery suspect used a stolen cellphone to snap a selfie and, in the process, gave authorities his identity.
That's according to police in Shreveport, Louisiana.
The Shreveport Times reports the victim of a July 10 robbery told police he was held up at gunpoint as he exited his car. The victim said he surrendered cash and two cellphones, and the robber fled.
Three days later, the victim told police the suspect had taken photos of himself that automatically uploaded to the victim's cloud. The victim retrieved the photos, which investigators then released to the public. Two days later, a tipster gave a suspect's identity via Shreveport Caddo Crime Stoppers.
Police say 27-year-old Tommy Lee Beverly Jr. is now being sought on an armed robbery charge.
California
State sues over Trump halt to truck pollution rule
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California and 14 other states sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Thursday over its decision to suspend an Obama-era rule aimed at limiting pollution from trucks.
The July 6 decision by the Trump EPA was illegal and could put thousands of additional highly polluting trucks on the roads, the states and the District of Columbia said in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The EPA said it does not comment on pending litigation.
The rule at issue limited production of heavy-duty freight trucks outfitted with older engines that don't meet today's emissions standards.
An EPA official said in a memo that the suspension was in the public interest to avoid disruption to small businesses that make the trucks.
Former EPA Chief Scott Pruitt had called the Obama administration's ban on the dirtier truck engines an example of regulatory overreach that "threatened to put an entire industry of specialized truck manufacturers out of business."
The Obama administration said pollution from the retrofitted trucks could lead to 1,600 early deaths each year.
"As EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt's job was to act as out country's chief environmental prosecutor," California's attorney general, Democrat Xavier Becerra, said in a statement. "At every turn - even until the bitter end - he failed to carry out this important duty and instead put the profits of major polluters above the health of our families."
The D.C. appeals court has already blocked the suspension of the rule temporarily in a separate lawsuit filed by environmental groups, according to Becerra.
Illinois
Judge in court as a defendant in misdemeanor gun case
MAYWOOD, Ill. (AP) - A judge charged with carrying a concealed weapon in a prohibited area after being caught on video dropping a gun in a Chicago courthouse made his first hearing.
However, the arraignment of Judge Joseph Claps on Thursday was postponed because an outside prosecutor hasn't been appointed.
Because Claps has worked closely with other Cook County judges and prosecutors a conflict of interest was created. A Will County judge was appointed to preside over the case.
The 70-year-old Claps stood during the brief hearing before Judge Edward Burmila at the branch courthouse in suburban Maywood. Burmila reset the arraignment for Aug. 9.
Claps was in the lobby of the Leighton Criminal Court Building on July 3, when a handgun fell from the jacket draped over his arm. Surveillance video shows the judge retrieving the gun and putting it in his pants pocket.
The sheriff's department says only on-duty law enforcement officers may carry guns in the courthouse.
Ohio
Killer spared after extent of childhood abuse revealed
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Friday spared a condemned killer whose sentence was challenged after a juror came forward and said information about the extent of the inmate's tough childhood wasn't properly presented at trial.
The Republican governor commuted the sentence of death row inmate Raymond Tibbetts to life without the possibility of parole, citing "fundamental flaws" in the sentencing portion of Tibbetts' trial.
"Specifically, the defense's failure to present sufficient mitigating evidence, coupled with an inaccurate description of Tibbetts' childhood by the prosecution, essentially prevented the jury from making an informed decision about whether Tibbetts deserved the death sentence," Kasich said.
The guilt of Tibbetts, 61, has never been in doubt. He received the death sentence for stabbing Fred Hicks to death at Hicks' Cincinnati home in 1997. Tibbetts also received life imprisonment for fatally beating and stabbing his wife, 42-year-old Judith Crawford, during an argument that same day over Tibbetts' crack cocaine habit.
The 67-year-old Hicks had hired Crawford as a caretaker and allowed the couple to stay with him.
The case against Hicks seemed closed until a former juror, Ross Geiger, came across materials presented on Tibbetts' behalf to the Ohio Parole Board that documented horrific facts about Tibbetts' early years, which jurors never heard.
When Tibbetts was a boy, he and his brothers were tied to a single bed at night, were not fed properly, were thrown down stairs, had their fingers beaten with spatulas and were burned on heating registers, according to Tibbetts' application for mercy last year.
Geiger wrote Kasich in January citing his concerns and asking that Tibbetts be spared. He also testified before the parole board last month in a rare follow-up clemency hearing. The board had voted 11-1 against mercy for Tibbetts last year.
Geiger told the board that Tibbetts' upbringing was presented as a debate between his attorneys, who said his background was terrible, and prosecutors, who said it wasn't that bad.
"I was just struck and frankly upset that information that was available was not even addressed, other than in very summary fashion," Geiger told the board.
Geiger's comments didn't sway the panel, which again recommended against mercy for Tibbetts with an 8-1 vote.
Kasich's decision Friday rejected that ruling.
County prosecutors have previously argued that Tibbetts' background does not outweigh his crimes. That includes stabbing Crawford after he had already beaten her to death, and then repeatedly stabbing Hicks, a "sick, defenseless, hearing-impaired man in whose home Tibbetts lived," they told the parole board.
Published: Mon, Jul 23, 2018
