Court Digest

Pennsylvania
Boy, 13, charged with homicide in shooting death of boy, 5
PENN HILLS, Pa. (AP) — Authorities in western Pennsylvania say a 13-year-old boy is being charged with homicide in the shooting death of a 5-year-old boy last month, but the case will be transferred to juvenile court to allow a judge to determine “supervision and treatment” of the youth.

Allegheny County police say Penn Hills officers were called to a home just after 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 22. and found the 5-year-old boy with a single gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police said detectives determined that four children ranging in age from 3 to 13 were left unsupervised while “a loaded and unsecured handgun” was left within reach. Police said the 13-year-old pointed the firearm at the younger child and pulled the trigger “while believing that the safety was on.”

County prosecutors said a homicide charge cannot be filed directly in juvenile court, so the older child was charged as an adult — but prosecutors intend to send the case to juvenile court to “allow a judge to decide what is the best course of supervision and treatment for this child.”

Police said they are conferring with prosecutors to determine the level of culpability of at least one adult “for which criminal charges are anticipated.”

Indiana
Man gets 19 years for role in plot to kill informant
RICHMOND, Ind. (AP) — An eastern Indiana man has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for his role in a failed plot that aimed to kill a police informant.

A Wayne County judge sentenced Ryan J. Carpenter, 31, on Monday but suspended five years of his sentence to probation. A jury had convicted the Connersville man in October of conspiracy to commit murder.

Prosecutors allege that Larry Blackstock recruited Carpenter and Bradi Louden to kill a police informant so that she could not provide a deposition against Blackstock in a drug-dealing case, the Palladium-Item reported.

Blackstock and Louden also face felony conspiracy charges. Their trials are scheduled for Jan. 24.

An inmate at the Wayne County Jail provided authorities with information about the conspiracy, and Louden and Carpenter were arrested in October 2018, when they arrived at a liquor store to meet the informant.

Authorities said Carpenter, who had syringes, drove Louden to the store and that Blackstock had allegedly supplied Louden with various drugs and instructions to make sure the informant fatally overdosed.

Louden remains jailed with a $1 million bond. Blackstock is serving a three-year sentence he received in the drug-dealing case.


Oregon
Police officer pleads not guilty in brutality case
BEND, Ore. (AP) — A Bend Police officer charged with assaulting a man while on duty has pleaded not guilty.

Kevin Uballez, 38, appeared by video Tuesday in Deschutes County Circuit Court, where he entered pleas of not guilty and was given future court dates, The Bulletin reported.

Uballez now has an address in southwest Portland listed with the court.

He has been on paid leave since October, when he was charged with harassment and fourth-degree assault, both misdemeanors.

A call and email from the newspaper to Uballez’s attorney, Steven L. Myers, were not returned.

Prosecutors said that in June, while attempting to take Caleb Hamlin into custody, Uballez slammed him into the ground.

Hamlin, 42, of Colville, has filed a notice of intent to sue the city of Bend.

Before police contacted Hamlin, he was beaten by high school students who filmed their attack, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said Tuesday.

Uballez’s alleged actions were reported to supervisors by two other officers. Uballez was hired by Bend Police in 2014.

Criminal charges against employees also result in an internal affairs investigation and employment actions including termination are based on internal affairs cases, according to spokeswoman Lt. Juli McConkey.

Alabama
Man sentenced to life in killing of cousin
DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man convicted of murder in his cousin’s shooting death two year ago was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on Wednesday.

Morgan County Circuit Judge Charles Elliott imposed the sentence on Shadeed Abdul Fuqua, 31, of Decatur for the killing of Jarmaine Cardell Jones, news outlets reported.

While Elliott called the killing “infuriating” and devastating to the family of the victim, Fuqua told the court: “I’m not a lost cause.”

“I’m not the person that this paperwork tries to make me out to be,” he said according to the Decatur Daily. The defense requested a 20-year sentence.

Prosecutors said Jones, 27, of North Courtland, was shot 11 times outside an apartment in Decatur in November 2019. Jurors convicted Fuqua in October.


Missouri
Man found guilty of killing 4 family members
PLATTE CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man has been convicted of killing four of his family members — including an infant — whose bodies were discovered in the aftermath of a 2016 house fire in northwestern Missouri.

A Platte County jury on Tuesday found 30-year-old Grayden Lane Denham guilty of four counts first-degree murder, four counts of armed criminal action and several other counts.

Killed were his grandparents, 82-year-old Russell Denham and 81-year-old Shirley Denham; his sister, 32-year-old Heather Ager; and Ager’s 3-month-old son, Mason Schiavoni. Their burned bodies were found outside a home near Edgerton, Missouri, on February 19, 2016, and investigators said they all had been shot to death. Prosecutors said Denham torched the home they all shared after the killings.

Prosecutors said Denham was found walking naked in northern Arizona two days after the bodies were found. Prosecutors said Denham had stolen his grandmother’s car after the killings and drove it to Arizona, changing the license plates twice along the way.

Denham’s case faced multiple delays, including in 2020 when he was deemed not mentally fit to stand trial. The court later found him restored to competency, allowing the trial to proceed.

Denham faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole when he’s sentenced on Feb. 25.

Indiana
Magistrate denies bail for 2 women in boy’s killing
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — A magistrate has denied bail for two northwest Indiana women charged with murdering a 10-year-old boy whose body had so many injuries a prosecutor said he was the defendants’ “punching bag.”
A Lake Criminal Court magistrate rejected a petition Monday seeking bail for April L. Wright, 27, and her wife, Rachel R. Wright, 27, both of Merrillville.

The women told police that April Wright’s younger brother, Leviticus Kuchta, was injured in two dirt bike accidents in the days before Merrillville police found him dead in his bed in October 2020, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported.

Lake County Supervisory Deputy Prosecutor Michelle Jatkiewicz wrote in court filings that the women’s story was “pure fiction” and that the child “was repeatedly isolated and tortured” by the women, who had been entrusted with his care.

Both women have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated battery, neglect of a dependent causing death and battery.

An autopsy found that Leviticus Kuchta died instantly from a dislocation of his cervical vertebrae caused by blunt force trauma.

But the boy had suffered injuries from head to toe in the days and weeks before his death, Jatkiewicz wrote in a court petition.

“He was the punching bag for his sister and her wife. They had complete access to Leviticus, who had not access to help,” she wrote. “The only way he would leave that house was in a body bag. And that is what ultimately happened.”

Colorado
Men accused of assaulting police on Jan. 6
DENVER (AP) — A man from Colorado and another from Florida who are accused of assaulting police officers in separate incidents during the Jan. 6. riot at the U.S. Capitol were being held in federal custody Wednesday.

Mason Joel Courson, 26, of Tamarac, Florida, was arrested Tuesday in Florida and appeared in federal court Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said. Courson is accused of being part of a group that was armed with a baton, flagpole and a crutch that assaulted a Metropolitan Police officer, the office said. Earlier in the day, he allegedly participated in “heave-ho” efforts to get into the Capitol, the office said.

Courson’s lawyer, Jason Kreiss, said he could not comment on the allegations because he has not seen the evidence in the case yet.

Meanwhile, Avery Carter MacCracken, 68, of Telluride, Colorado, who is accused of punching a Metropolitan Police officer in the face, remained detained following his arrest on Saturday near the ski resort town. He was identified as a suspect being sought by the FBI in the riot by a resident and authorities there.

According to court documents released Tuesday, the officer was part of a line of officers protecting the state Capitol. MacCracken is also accused of pushing and shoving a second officer in the line.

Authorities in Telluride told investigators that MacCracken has been a resident for years, sometimes living out of his car, according to his arrest affidavit. San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters and town Chief Marshal Josh Comte reported seeing MacCracken in Telluride wearing the same clothes shown in images from the Capitol, according to the affidavit.

MacCracken appeared in federal court in Grand Junction Tuesday. He will continue to be detained at least until another hearing scheduled for Friday.

He is represented by a lawyer from the Denver federal public defender’s office, which does not comment on cases.

Meanwhile, two men who allegedly assaulted officers, Donald Hazard, 43, of Hurst, Texas, and Lucas Denney, 44, of Mansfield, Texas, during the riot were arrested Monday.

Footage shows Hazard grappling with U.S. Capitol Police officers, falling down a set of stairs under scaffolding on the west side of the Capitol and fighting with one officer as they were both falling, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Denney is accused of grabbing and shoving a police officer and attempting to grab a canister of crowd-control spray from another officer before swinging a long metal pole at him, the office said. Denney is also accused of a participating in “heave-ho” efforts to advance into the building while carrying what appeared to be a baton or stick in the same location and around the same time as Courson is accused of doing, according to prosecutors.

A telephone message and an email sent to Hazard’s lawyer was not immediately returned. No lawyer was listed as representing Denney in court records.

Missouri
Man gets 25 years in fatal carjacking attempt
ST. LOUIS (AP) — An East St. Louis, Illinois, man was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in federal prison for killing a man during an attempted carjacking in St. Louis in 2019.

Demario Hunter pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court prior to the sentencing.

Federal prosecutors say Hunter, 33, and two other men tried to take a 2013 Ford Escape from James A. Sapone, leading to a struggle during which Hunter fatally shot Sapone. The crime happened on Sept. 6, 2019.

Trials are still pending for the other two suspects.