Court Digest

Georgia
2 law officers indicted in man’s 2016 shooting death
EAST POINT, Ga. (AP) — A grand jury on Tuesday returned an eight-count indictment against two law enforcement officers in connection with the 2016 killing of a man shot 76 times during an attempted fugitive arrest in the Atlanta area.

Eric Heinze, an assistant chief inspector with the U.S. Marshal’s Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, and Kristopher Hutchens, a Clayton County police officer working with the task force, were formally charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, making false statements and violation of oath by a public officer, news outlets reported.

A medical examiner’s report said Jamarion Robinson, 26, was shot 76 times by police on Aug. 5, 2016, when officers tried to enter his apartment. Law enforcement believed Robinson was the man responsible for pointing a gun at Atlanta officers and fleeing, according to authorities.

It was not immediately known if Heinze or Hutchinson had lawyers who could comment on their behalf.

Attorney Gerald Griggs, who is close with Robinson’s family, said the family celebrated the decision, which they’ve been waiting on for five years.

A U.S. Marshals Service spokesman has said officers were attempting to serve warrants on Robinson issued by Atlanta police and Gwinnett County police in the Atlanta suburbs. A private detective hired by Robinson’s mother uncovered evidence of gunshots fired straight into the ground where her son’s body was lying. Robinson had been a college football player at Clark Atlanta University and Tuskegee University, and had no criminal convictions.

There is no body-camera video of the shooting. At the time, federal policies didn’t allow U.S. Marshals or local police officers assisting them to wear body cameras. Cell phone video from outside the apartment where the shooting
took place captured nearly three minutes of gunfire.

Robinson’s family said their son, who suffered from mental illness, was at his girlfriend’s house when 16 officers broke down the door.

“Over 90 rounds were fired at my son, flash-bang grenades were thrown at him, landed on him burning him. Somebody walked up the stairs, stood over him, and shot down into his body two more times. After that he was handcuffed and drug down a flight of stairs,” Monteria Robinson said at a news conference in June 2020.

The case had been delayed from being brought before a grand jury a couple of times, with the latest owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

A former Fulton County district attorney, Paul Howard, had said the investigation into the case was blocked by the officers’ refusal to cooperate and the absence of body camera footage. But when Howard lost his position to Fani Willis, the new prosecutor promised swifter action.

The District Attorney’s Office declined comment on the grand jury action, saying late Tuesday that it was waiting on a copy of the indictment.

Alabama
Man convicted on child porn  charges
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — A federal jury in Louisiana convicted an Alabama man on Tuesday of creating child pornography by coercing a girl under age 12 to send him sexually explicit images of herself.

William Malone, 45, of Mobile, was convicted in Lafayette on five counts of producing child pornography and two related charges, federal prosecutors said in a news release.

The federal public defenders who represented Malone did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Malone “did employ, use, persuade, induce, entice, and coerce a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct” for the pornography, according to the production charges in the indictment handed up Oct. 7, 2020.

Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said the investigation began in March 2020, after the girl in Mobile told her mother that Malone had been sexually abusing her.

Malone was captain of a vessel that sailed out of Abbeville, Louisiana, and the images were on his phone and laptop, found in a search of that vessel, the news release said.

FBI agents had found texts on the girl’s cell phone asking her to send sexually explicit images of herself, and images that she told officers she had sent were found on Malone’s phone and laptop, according to the news release.

A sentencing date has not been set. The maximum total sentence would be life in prison plus 160 years, and a $250,000 fine, the news release said.

Charges of sexual abuse of a child under age 12 and of first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy are pending in Mobile, police spokeswoman Katrina Frazier said in an email.

The Mobile County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to an email asking if he has an attorney there who could speak for him.

Tennessee
Woman pleads guilty to falsifying water tests
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee woman has pleaded guilty to submitting hundreds of false reports to state regulators about the cleanliness of wastewater she was paid to analyze, federal prosecutors said.

DiAne Gordon, 61, faces up to five years in federal prison after she pleaded guilty Tuesday to making and using false writings and documents in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said. She is scheduled to be sentenced in March.

As chief executive officer of a Memphis environmental testing company, Gordon was hired by clients to sample and test storm water, process water and wastewater to satisfy Clean Water Act permit requirements.

Prosecutors said Gordon fabricated 405 lab test reports and other documents sent to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

Gordon forged documents from a reputable testing laboratory and billed her clients for sampling and analysis, prosecutors said.

As part of a plea agreement, Gordon was ordered to repay more than $200,000 to customers.

Indiana
13-year-old charged in reported home invasion slaying
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A 13-year-old has been charged as a juvenile with the murder of a 69-year-old woman killed during a likely home invasion on Indianapolis’ near east side, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office said Tuesday.

Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to charge the teen as an adult.

No one else has been charged in the case.

Police arrested the juvenile on Oct. 10, hours after Antonia Macri-Reiner was shot in her home.

Police have not released any details about the shooting, but neighbors have told reporters that Macri-Reiner was shot during a home invasion.

Virginia
Man indicted in 2019 death of infant child
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man has been charged with murder in the death of his infant child nearly two years ago, police said.

Virginia Beach police announced in a news release Tuesday evening that La’Shaun Quintae Holloway, 23, was indicted last week by a grand jury on charges of second-degree murder and felony child neglect. An investigation showed Holloway “engaged in actions that caused the death of his infant child,” police said.

The charges stem from an incident Dec. 20, 2019, when police responded to Woodcock Lane in Virginia Beach for an infant who was found unresponsive. The infant later died, police said.

Holloway was served while he was in the Chesapeake City Jail, where he was already in custody on unrelated charges, according to police.

Ohio
Disgruntled neighbor who killed 9 by arson gets life term
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A man convicted of killing nine people in arson fires in his neighborhood was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole for each death.

Judge Christine Croce also ordered that Stanley Ford, of Akron, serve the terms consecutively.

Ford, 62, has maintained his innocence. He was found guilty Sept. 21 of 26 of the 29 counts against him, including aggravated murder and aggravated arson. A jury recommended this month that he be sentenced to life in prison instead of the death penalty, although the judge had the final say.

Besides the life terms for the murders, Croce also imposed an additional 21-year sentence for attempted aggravated murder with a violent offender specification.

Ford did not speak at the sentencing. His lawyer — who asked the judge Tuesday to not impose consecutive terms — said Ford plans to appeal the sentence.

Summit County prosecutors said Ford killed a couple in 2016 and two adults and five children in 2017. They used surveillance video footage, security alarm records and the testimony of neighbors to show Ford was responsible.

Prosecutors said Ford set the fires because of disputes with his neighbors. Ford’s attorney argued at trial that his client could not be identified in the surveillance videos and added that other potential suspects were identified.

Ford’s initial trial began in March 2020. After a week of testimony and several delays, Summit County Judge Christine Croce declared a mistrial the following June at the request of Ford’s attorneys, who cited concerns about Ford’s ability to get a fair trial during the coronavirus pandemic.

Maine
Federal charges for school worker in exploitation case
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Tuesday they have charged a Maine man with sexually exploiting a minor and transporting child pornography stemming from a case involving a Portland education technician.

Benjamin Conroy, 32, is accused of exploiting a 6-year-old autistic student at a Portland elementary school and then sending explicit images to a third person using a dating application, prosecutors said. They said he faces up to 30 years in prison for the top charge.

A date has not been set for Conroy’s first court appearance, prosecutors said. Police arrested Conroy earlier this month.

A reporter’s call to Conroy’s phone number on Tuesday was not answered, and there was no lawyer listed for him in the federal case file.

Texas
Judge rejects challenge to Southwest’s vaccine mandate
DALLAS (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a bid by pilots to block Southwest Airlines from imposing a vaccine mandate, saying the airline is within its power to require vaccination as a safety measure.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn denied the request by the airline’s pilot union to issue a temporary restraining order against the airline’s requirement.

The judge said Tuesday that Southwest is within its authority to require vaccinations to improve safety and maintain its operations.

Southwest Airlines asked its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to comply with a Biden administration requirement for federal contractors including airlines that have contracts with the government.

In recent days, the airline has weakened the requirement by saying workers who fail to comply won’t be fired. Southwest has openly encouraged employees to ask for a medical or religious exemption from being vaccinated if they object to getting the shots.

Dallas-based Southwest is giving employees until Nov. 24 to provide proof of vaccination or request an exemption.

Iowa
Man sentenced to prison for music concert schemes
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Chicago man has been sentenced in Iowa to federal prison for running a scheme in which he collected deposits and money for other expenses related to music concerts that never took place.

Romel Murphy, 43, was sentenced last week to more than six years in federal prison after pleading guilty in January to one count of wire fraud, federal prosecutors in Cedar Rapids said in a news release. There is no parole in the federal system.

Investigators said Murphy used his talent booking agency to solicit music venues to send him money to secure artists’ performances. Prosecutors said Murphy would send signed contracts to victims that appeared to have come from the artists, but that had actually been drafted and signed by Murphy himself. The venues would sign the contracts and wire funds to Murphy, which he never paid to the artists, but used for gambling and other personal uses.

Murphy defrauded his victims of more than $410,000 from November 2017 through March 2019, prosecutors said, and his sentencing judge ordered him to pay more than $414,400 in restitution to his victims.

Murphy had three prior convictions for federal fraud-related offenses and committed two of those offenses while on federal supervised release, prosecutors said.