National Roundup

Hawaii
Man paints face black at hearing for life sentence
HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii man who painted his face black with a marker for his sentencing hearing has been ordered to serve life in prison.

A judge sentenced Mark Char Monday to a mandatory life prison term with possible parole for attempted murder, news organizations reported.

Honolulu Circuit Court Judge Todd Eddins also sentenced the 60-year-old to five years in prison for second-degree assault and one year for third-degree assault.

Attorney Keith Shigetomi, who withdrew as Char’s defense lawyer after the hearing, said it was Char’s choice to appear with his face and head blackened.

“You treating me like a black man, so today I am a black man,” Char told the judge.

Char continued talking and laughing after he told Eddins that he was done with his pre-sentencing statement.

A state jury found Char guilty in March of stabbing three people in a road rage incident on a freeway in August 2016.

Char repeatedly braked in front of Jesther Marlang’s car before they both pulled onto a median. Char reversed and crashed into Marlang’s car, police said.

Char then used pepper spray against Marlang and his passenger, Deion Anunciacion, and stabbed them. During the struggle Char bit and nearly severed two of Marlang’s fingers, authorities said.

He also stabbed a passing motorist, Jene Winn, who tried to stop the confrontation, police said.

Char claimed he acted in self-defense and called his trial a kangaroo court.

“You’re a menace to the public,” the judge said. “This is not a kangaroo court; you got a fair trial.”

North Dakota
Server joins lawsuit against restaurant over pregnancy
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge will allow a waitress who claims she was fired because of her pregnancy to join a lawsuit against a Bismarck restaurant.

The judge decided Erica Davidson is within her rights to intervene in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s lawsuit against the operator of 40 Steak & Seafood.

The Bismarck Tribune reports the EEOC claims East 40 discriminated against Davidson who says was fired just a few months after being hired in 2015 because she became pregnant.

East 40 attorney Michael Hoffman says Davidson was fired because she refused to commit to working at least three days a week, not because she was pregnant. The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount of money to compensate Davidson for lost past and future earnings and for emotional distress, along with punitive damages.

Ohio
Appeals court affirms murder conviction after defendant dies
WARREN, Ohio (AP) — A state court considering an appeal for a defendant who died in prison has affirmed his conviction and sentence for fatally shooting two people and wounding three at his Ohio home.

Forty-nine-year-old Nasser Hamad died of natural causes less than a year after being sentenced to at least 36 years in prison on aggravated murder and other charges in the 2017 Howland Township shooting.

Police say Hamad began shooting after a fight began. The defense argued the shooting was self-defense.

Ohio’s 11th District Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from Hamad’s attorneys on Monday. They had argued the Trumbull County trial court made errors, including not instructing jurors that they could consider a particular lesser charge.

Defense attorney Samuel Shamansky says Hamad’s family will be consulted on any further action.

Massachusetts
Man gets more than 4 years for drawing gun on landscaper
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man who pulled a gun on a landscaper he blamed for blowing debris into his car has been sentenced to nearly 4 1/2 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors say 24-year-old Franklin Laras, of Lawrence, was sentenced this week after pleading guilty in March to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Because he was a previously convicted of a crime, he was not allowed to have a gun.

Police responded to a Law­rence restaurant last August after getting a call from a landscaper working there who said someone in a car in the drive-thru confronted him for blowing debris into the car. The landscaper apologized, but Laras pulled a gun from his waistband. A woman in the car pushed Laras back in the vehicle and they drove off.

New Jersey
Man sentenced for importing scorpions, giant millipedes
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man who illegally imported scorpions, giant millipedes and other invertebrates, some of which escaped inside a postal delivery truck, has been spared a prison term.

Wlodzimie Lapkiewicz instead was ordered Tuesday to serve six months of home confinement and four years of probation. The 30-year-old Metuchen man had pleaded guilty to smuggling wildlife.

In July 2015, a group of live scorpions and millipedes escaped from an international express mail parcel originating in Tanzania and addressed to Lapkiewicz at his home.

A postal inspector gave him a warning. But prosecutors say he continued to order live insects and invertebrates without proper permits, through July 2018.

Prosecutors say Lapkiewicz participated and assisted others in intentionally mislabeling parcels of live wildlife to avoid detection.

Montana
Man pleads guilty in $43M fraud
NEW YORK (AP) — A Montana man has pleaded guilty to defrauding a Canadian financial institution of $43 million by posing as a legitimate business owner.

Todd Capser entered the wire fraud plea in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.

Prosecutors say the 47-year-old Billings, Montana, man defrauded a Toronto entity and tried to cheat nine other institutions of millions more.

The institution was identified in a lawsuit as Third Eye Capital Corp.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a release that Capser posed as a legitimate businessman before flooding the financial institution with false information.

Prosecutors say that Capser sought to engender sympathy, deflect questions and explain suspicious behavior by falsely telling some financial institutions that his daughter was dying from cancer.

Sentencing was set for Nov. 8.