Court Digest

Illinois
Officer charged in death of husband, also an officer
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago police officer has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after her husband, also a Chicago officer, was fatally shot this week during a struggle in their home.

Jacqueline Villasenor, 39, was charged with one felony count of involuntary manslaughter and was scheduled to appear in bond court Friday.

Chicago police said Villasenor was off-duty and arguing with her husband Tuesday evening in their Northwest Side home when one of them took out a gun and they began fighting over it.

During the struggle, the 44-year-old husband suffered a single gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said in a brief statement.

The man’s name has not been released by the police department or the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said Wednesday in a statement that the circumstances of the shooting remain under investigation.

“Last night, we lost a member of our Chicago Police Department family. An off-duty officer was killed in a tragic shooting incident at his home,” Brown said, asking for prayers for the officer’s loved ones.

Missouri
Women charged after man’s body found in illegal dumping area
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two women face charges after a man’s body was found in a wooded area of Kansas City, Missouri.

The Kansas City Star reports that officers were initially called Oct. 26 after a city worker discovered a body while looking into illegal dumping activity.

In federal court records, a detective said the body was found in a plastic container, “wrapped in black tape.” The death was ruled a homicide. The victim was later identified as 56-year-old Malvin Wallace.

Michele Props, of Gardner, Kansas, was charged Oct. 29 with abandonment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence in felony prosecution, which are both felonies. Two days later, Kaitlyn Andes of Kansas City faced the same charges.

Iowa
17-year-old charged with first-degree murder
FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) — A 17-year-old from the southeastern Iowa town of Fort Madison is now charged in the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy.

Authorities said Thursday that Dimari D.J. Meredith was charged with first-degree murder. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney.

The victim’s name and information about a possible motive have not been disclosed.

Officers were called to a home just after 5 p.m. Wednesday and found the victim in a bedroom. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police say the weapon was found inside the victim’s home.

Illinois
Woman charged in August fire deaths of her 5 kids
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — A woman has been charged with child endangerment in the August fire deaths of her five young children, who she allegedly left in a southwest Illinois apartment without adult supervision.

Sabrina Dunigan, 34, of East St. Louis, faces five felony counts of endangering the life/health of a child in St. Clair County, and online court records indicate there are pending grand jury actions in the case, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Charging documents said the children had been left without adult supervision, which was a proximate cause of their Aug. 6 fire deaths, according to the Belleville News-Democrat.

Deontae Davis Jr., 9; 8-year-old twins Neveah Dunigan and Heaven Dunigan; Jabari Johnson, 4; and Loy’el Dunigan, 2, were killed. Four of them died at the scene and the fifth died at a local hospital.

Dunigan had not surrendered to police or been served with an arrest warrant as of Thursday afternoon, said Chris Allen, a spokesman for the St. Clair County State’s Attorney office.

Dunigan’s father, Greg Dunigan, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday that he cannot believe authorities would charge her with a crime after everything she lost.

“Why are they trying to do this to her?” he said. “She done lost all she can lose already. Why they want to take the rest away, meaning herself? She don’t have nothing left.”

Assistant Fire Chief George McClellan of the East St. Louis Fire Department said shortly after the August fire that the children were home alone on the second floor of a two-story, brick building.

He said Sabrina Dunigan left briefly to pick up her boyfriend from work and she reported the fire after she and her boyfriend arrived at the apartment.

Sabrina Dunigan has said she suffered burns on her arms and feet during her futile attempts to reach her children.

Greg Dunigan has said he and his wife lived in a separate part of the one-bedroom apartment, and awoke to find smoke in apartment. He said flames prevented him from reaching his grandchildren and he and his wife jumped from the apartment’s second floor, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

California
Nurse charged in death of inmate at county jail
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A nurse at a county jail in California was charged with involuntary man­slaughter Thursday after being accused of walking away from a 24-year-old inmate who collapsed in front of her on a cell floor before she died.

Danalee Pascua faces up to four years in prison if convicted of the charge stemming from the Nov. 11, 2019, death of Elisa Serna at the Las Colinas Detention Facility in the San Diego suburb of Santee, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said.

The day before she died, Serna was moved into the jail’s medical observation unit after reporting she felt dizzy and nauseous.

According to prosecutors, Serna passed out in front of Pascua the next day and the nurse did not check her vital signs and instead left her on the floor for about an hour before returning with deputies to begin “futile lifesaving measures.”

The District Attorney’s office said the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department alerted prosecutors to the case after conducting its own internal investigation. The sheriff’s department offered condolences to the family in a statement Thursday.

The District Attorney’s office said the investigation is ongoing and others may be involved.

Pascua is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 18. The District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to an email asking if Pascua had an attorney yet.

The sheriff’s department initially said Serna died from complications of drug abuse, with a contributing factor of early intrauterine pregnancy.

Her family filed a federal wrong­ful death lawsuit against the county last year, alleging jail staff knew she had used heroin before she was booked and was vomiting and showing “obvious signs of medical distress,” but did not provide her medical treatment.

“There is nothing more sacred than the sanctity of life and when that life is in the custody and care of government, it must be safeguarded and provided with the appropriate medical care,” San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a statement. “The evidence in the in-custody death of Elisa Serna demonstrates criminal negligence that contributed to her death.”

Florida
Teen indicted on murder charge in officer’s fatal shooting
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — A teenager with a lengthy arrest record was indicted Thursday on a first-degree murder charge in the fatal shooting of a South Florida police officer.

A Broward County grand jury formally charged Jason Banegas, 18, in last month’s shooting of Officer Yandy Chirino, according to court records. Police had previously arrested Banegas on murder and other charges, but the formal indictment allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

Hollywood police officers confronted Banegas the night of Oct. 17 after getting a call about a man trying to break into cars, police said. Chirino spotted the teen first and tried to arrest him, but Banegas allegedly resisted and pulled out a stolen semi-automatic handgun, the arrest warrant said.

Banegas told detectives he was trying to kill himself to avoid going back to jail when he drew the gun and pulled the trigger, according to the warrant. The shot hit Chirino in the face, officials said.

A second officer arrived moments later and received several scrapes before finally getting the teen into handcuffs. Chirino’s fellow officers tried to keep him alive as he was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

According to the warrant, Banegas confessed to the break-ins and to resisting his arrest.

The gun used to shoot Chirino was stolen from a car in Miami-Dade County in September, the warrant said.

Attorneys for Banegas didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment about the charges.

Kansas
Homeless man convicted of killing woman who helped him
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A homeless man has been convicted of killing a Wichita woman who sometimes let him eat and sleep at her home.

John Darwin Pepper, 57, was convicted last week of first-degree felony murder and aggravated criminal sodomy in the death of 72-year-old Rita Golden.

Golden’s daughter found her mother’s partially nude body on the kitchen floor of her Wichita home on July 15, 2019, The Wichita Eagle  reported.

Prosecutors said Golden allowed Pepper to stay in her backyard and sometimes let him take a nap or eat inside her home.

An autopsy determined Golden died from a heart condition caused by high blood pressure but she also had injuries associated with smothering, according to a court affidavit. There were also signs she had been sexually assaulted, the affidavit says.

Pepper will be sentenced Dec. 10.

Colorado
Former deputies get prison for detox van death
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Two former Colorado sheriff’s deputies were sentenced to prison Thursday for causing the death of an intoxicated man by placing him on his stomach and squeezing him into a van to take him to a detox center.

Former Boulder County sheriff’s deputies James O’Brien and Adam Lunn were sentenced to six years and three years respectively for the 2018 death of 23-year-old Demetrius Shankling. O’Brien and Lunn were found guilty in August of manslaughter.

According to an arrest affidavit, they put the 6-foot-tall (1.8-meter-tall) man, with his hands behind his back, in a compartment that was less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) long. O’Brien and Lunn had to press on the compartment door to close it, causing Shankling’s leg to become wedged against the inside of the door, the affidavit said.

When they reached the detox center in the early hours of Sept. 9, 2018, Shankling was unresponsive and not breathing. He died after spending 27 days in a coma.

An autopsy found that Shankling died of suffocation because of his positioning, with alcohol and amphetamine as contributing factors.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle released a statement Thursday calling the death “a tragedy to everyone involved.”

“I’m sure of one thing, this death did not need to occur. I’m also sure these former deputies intended no harm,” he said. “I am confident we took all the necessary steps for accountability and transparency during this process. We relied on the justice system for a just outcome, and we trust that outcome is the best it can be under a horrible and yet preventable situation.”

Prosecutors told jurors that O’Brien and Lunn acted recklessly and disregarded their training on positional asphyxia. Meanwhile, the defense argued that the former deputies, who were working an extra shift at the time, were not very familiar with the van.

The sheriff’s office was in charge of taking people to detox that weekend because students had just returned to the University of Colorado and city and university police wanted to keep their officers on patrol instead.

Virginia
Ex-attorney sentenced for wire fraud, statements
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — A former Virginia attorney who specialized in elder law and estate planning has been sentenced to two years in prison for wire fraud and making false statements, a prosecutor said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia says in a news release that Cherie Anne Washburn, 45, of Lynchburg used money she fraudulently obtained to buy real estate and make donations to charities that her boss owned to make a favorable impression.

In 2015 and 2016, a senior care management service company referred elderly clients to Washburn to secure legal services. Washburn then entered separate power of attorney agreements, entitling her to compensation and reimbursement for expenses and services, but preventing her from using the personal property for herself.

The news release says Washburn wrote multiple checks and made wire transfers from her victims’ accounts to herself. In 2017, she tried to designate herself as beneficiary of two investment accounts which were worth approximately $288,000.

In 2018, Washburn told a mortgage lender that she was an elderly victim’s relative and that the victim gave her $40,000 to buy a home. Washburn took $45,000 from the victim’s account and deposited it in her own, the news release said.