National Roundup

Pennsylvania
Man indicted in deadly mass ­overdose at ­Pittsburgh party
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man accused of providing a white powdery substance tainted with fentanyl at an after-party in Pittsburgh last weekend, leading to the death of three men, has been indicted on numerous charges.

A federal grand jury on Wednesday returned a seven-count indictment against Peter Rene Sanchez Montalvo. The 25-year-old California man faces a single count of possessing drugs with the intent to distribute and six counts related to the three deaths as well as injuries suffered by four other men who used the drugs.

It’s not known if Montalvo has retained an attorney. He was scheduled for a federal detention hearing on Thursday.

Authorities have said all of the victims who overdosed had been at the same bar Saturday night. They later attended a party at an apartment where Montalvo allegedly passed around what victims thought was cocaine.

New York
2 middle school girls charged with racist attack
GOUVERNEUR, N.Y. (AP) — Two middle-school students face charges after the mother of a 10-year-old girl reported her daughter was beaten and subjected to racist taunts on a school bus in northern New York.

Gouverneur village police charged two white girls, ages 10 and 11, with harassment for an attack against a 10-year-old African American girl earlier this month, WWNY reported .

The 11-year-old was also charged with assault as a hate crime. The case will be handled in family court.

The 28-year-old bus monitor, who is white, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child for not intervening.

Police said the victim’s parent reported the incident on Sept. 10, saying her daughter was beaten on a school bus and subjected to racially motivated language.

The victim suffered a black eye from being punched, a bruised knee from falling backward into the school bus seat and pulled-out hair, police said.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday said he’s directing the state Division of Human Rights to investigate the incident “and, if applicable, to take legal action to the fullest extent of the law against the perpetrators.”

“That this was allegedly perpetrated by her own classmates, on a school bus with an adult monitor present, makes this incident even more shocking and troubling,” Cuomo said in a statement. “When we put our children on the bus to school, we are entrusting others with our most precious resource and this was an egregious and inexcusable violation of that trust.”

Pennsylvania
Parents charged after toddler ODs on fentanyl
COCHRANVILLE, Pa. (AP) — State police say an infant overdosed on fentanyl after his parents fell asleep while using the drug in a vehicle at their Pennsylvania home.

The 11-month-old boy was unconscious and not breathing when he was found around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday by a family member. Emergency responders administered the anti-overdose drug naloxone and he was taken to a hospital, where he remained Thursday.

The child’s parents, 31-year-old Charles Salzman Jr. and 30-year-old Kristen Bristow, allegedly used heroin/fentanyl in their vehicle with their child inside while parked at their Cochranville home. After they fell asleep, the boy found and ingested the drugs while seated inside the vehicle.

Salzman and Bristow each face charges of aggravated assault, child endangerment, recklessly endangering another person and other counts. It’s not known if they’ve retained attorneys.

Vermont
Man accused of killing wife with cleaver to await trial in prison
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont man who allegedly killed his wife with a meat cleaver in 2017 will await trial in prison.

WCAX-TV reports Aita Gurung’s attorney requested that he be held in a mental health facility after psychiatrists found Gurung had experienced schizophrenia and psychotic behavior at the time of his wife’s death.

The court ruled Wednesday that Gurung must wait behind bars.

He was initially charged with killing his wife in 2017, but Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George dropped the charges against him because the state did not have evidence to show he was sane.

First-degree murder charges were re-filed against Gurung earlier this month after Republican Gov. Phil Scott asked the attorney general’s office to review the case.

Indiana
Boy, 15, sentenced in uncle’s death after house fire
NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) — A 15-year-old Indiana boy has been sentenced to 17½ years in prison after pleading guilty in a house fire that resulted in his uncle’s death.

Adam T. Hersker was charged as an adult in the June 16 fire. A Floyd County judge sentenced him Wednesday after accepting his guilty plea to one count of arson resulting in serious bodily injury.

Court documents say Hersker told police he’d argued with his aunt and uncle the day before he used gasoline to torch their home in Floyds Knobs, just north of the Ohio River city of New Albany. He and two siblings lived with the couple, who were their guardians.

Forty-seven-year-old Mike Hersker and his wife, Dorothy, were injured. Mike Hersker died July 4 from extensive burns to his arms and legs.

Oregon
Man gets 14 years for attempted murder of deputy
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A man who was convicted of trying to kill a Marion County deputy during a botched jailbreak was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison.

The Statesman Journal reports 49-year-old Bradley Monical was convicted after a weeklong trial in which he represented himself. A jury convicted Monical Friday of attempted aggravated murder, second-degree assault, escape, assault of a public safety officer and strangulation.

While he was awaiting trial in Marion County on robbery and attempted murder charges, Monical and another inmate attacked Deputy Stacy Headrick during an early-morning escape attempt in November 2016.
Court records say they surprise-attacked Headrick and choked her while trying to grab her keys and radio.

Headrick was seriously injured during the attack and hospitalized.

Monical insisted he was not planning to kill Headrick.