New Mexico
Woman sentenced in scheme to steal and resell iP0ds intended for kids
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — A former employee of a northwestern New Mexico school district faces 18 months in prison after she was sentenced in a yearslong scheme to steal and resell thousands of Apple iP0ds intended for Native American children on the Navajo Nation.
Kristy Stock, 46, of Waterflow was sentenced Tuesday by a federal judge in Maryland after previously pleading guilty to interstate transportation of stolen goods and tax fraud, the Farmington Daily Times reported.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland, Stock from 2014 to 2019 stole up to 250 iP0ds at a time and provided them to codefendants who bought the devices from Stock and resold them via eBay at a profit.
Stock worked for the Shiprock-headquartered Central Consolidated School District and oversaw use of federal grant money intended to be used to provide iP0ds to students, the office said in a statement.
South Dakota
Woman accused of faking kidnapping facing criminal charges
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A Sioux Falls woman accused of faking her own kidnapping from a local pizza restaurant told detectives she wanted a break from her husband, according to court documents.
The woman has been charged with attempted grand theft and making a false report to authorities. She faces arraignment next week in Minnehaha County.
Court documents say the woman worked as a delivery driver for Domino’s Pizza and last Feb. 10 called her husband and said she was surrounded by multiple armed individuals who were demanding money. Her husband told investigators that he thought he heard pounding on a window and a car door opening before the call went dead.
Then he started to receive text messages demanding money for the safe return of his wife, officials said. As detectives were speaking with workers at Domino’s, one employee began getting texts from the woman’s phone demanding money for her to be released unharmed, the Argus Leader reported.
Police were able to ping the woman’s phone to a Culver’s in Brookings. That’s where the Brookings SWAT team was activated, and found the woman’s car with her and another man inside, according to court documents.
Authorities say investigators called the woman out on what they said were inaccuracies in her story and she admitted to sending the text messages to her husband and co-worker, as well as admitted she had never been kidnapped.
An arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 26.
New Jersey
Ex-NJ police chief granted delay on reporting to prison
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A judge has granted a request by a former New Jersey police chief to delay reporting to federal prison to serve a 28-month sentence on a conviction of lying to the FBI during a hate crime investigation.
U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler agreed last week that former Bordentown Township police chief Frank Nucera Jr. should be allowed to remain free while seeking medical treatment for a number of health problems. The judge also cited rising coronavirus case counts, especially in the area around the FCI Ashland prison in Kentucky.
Kugler signed an order directing Nucera to report for prison April 30 rather than this month but warned defense attorney Rocco Cipparone that he would not be amenable to further delays. A prosecutor had expressed sympathy for Nucera’s medical ailments but objected that he shouldn’t be able “to put off his surrender indefinitely.”
Nucera was sentenced in 2019 after he was convicted of lying to the FBI by a jury that deadlocked on other charges. He had pleaded not guilty to charges of slamming a handcuffed Black man’s head into a doorjamb in 2016 while two officers were escorting the man from a hotel.
In December, another jury deadlocked on the charges of hate crime assault and deprivation of civil rights. Prosecutors then dropped the charges against Nucera, who retired during the FBI investigation in 2017 after a 34-year career.
Montana
Kalispell man convicted of homicide in death of wife in 2020
KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — A Kalispell man has been convicted of deliberate homicide in the December 2020 death of his wife.
A Flathead County jury deliberated for five hours on Friday before finding Bradley Jay Hillious, 35, guilty in the death of Amanda Hillious, 33, the Flathead Beacon reported.
District Court Judge Robert Allison scheduled sentencing for March 8.
Hillious told investigators his wife had fallen down the stairs on Dec. 15, 2020, but prosecutors provided evidence that indicated she had been strangled. She died on Dec. 19 of blunt force trauma injuries associated with neck compression, an autopsy found.
Amanda’s son from a previous relationship, now 12, testified at trial that “Brad killed my mom.” He told jurors he heard Bradley Hillious and his mother arguing before he saw him dragging and hitting her.
The couple’s now 6-year-old son testified that he heard his mother tell his father to “stop.”
Prosecutors also showed that Hillious had a history of domestic violence against his wife, who had sought restraining orders against him and his father Scott Hillious.
The defense argued that emergency responders provided “negligent” and delayed medical care to Amanda Hillious and investigators focused too quickly on Bradley Hillious without considering his father as a suspect.
Bradley Hillious reported his father died by suicide on Dec. 24, 2020, shortly after detectives called to request a follow-up interview with both men.
Bradley Hillious said his father stated: “I can’t deal with this anymore, I’m not going to jail,” before killing himself.
Georgia
Bank employee sentenced for $750,000 in fraudulent loans
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A former Georgia bank worker has been sentenced to federal prison for using a stolen identity to take out more than $750,000 in fraudulent loans.
A U.S. District Court judge ordered a 10-month prison sentence for Jason McMillan of Savannah after he pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges.
McMillan, 46, used his job as a commercial loan officer at a Chatham County bank to take out four loans between 2009 and 2019, the U.S. attorney’s office for Georgia’s Southern District said in a news release.
Prosecutors say the loans were taken out using someone else’s identity and fraudulently stated the money was being used to buy industrial farm equipment. Their amounts ranged from $157,000 to $250,000. The bank alerted authorities after an internal investigation flagged the loans.
McMillan admitted in court to spending at least $200,000 of the loan money for personal uses. In addition to his prison sentence, he was ordered to pay $112,430 in restitution.
Arizona
Man gets 10-year sentence for girlfriend’s murder
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A Tucson man has been sentenced to a decade in prison for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend in 2020.
Pima County prosecutors said Jahkwez Desean Wilson was given a 10-year prison term on a murder charge and eight months for reckless child abuse.
According to Tucson TV station KOLD, Wilson will serve the sentences consecutively.
He also was credited with 605 days for time served at Friday’s sentencing.
Prosecutors said Wilson and Chad Edmonson were accused of killing 34-year-old Christina Leeann Nunley in May 2020.
Nunley had been staying at an eastside Tucson hotel with Wilson and his children, according to police.
They said while Nunley was meeting with the visitor in another room, a single gunshot was fired and she was found dead.
Prosecutors said Edmonson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last October and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
According to court records, Wilson got a shorter sentence in part because he called 911 and tried to help Nunley.
North Dakota
Collecting race data on defendants nearly complete in ND
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A nearly yearlong effort at collecting race data on defendants to identify any potential bias in North Dakota’s justice system will come to an end soon.
The court rule that took effect in March 2021 requires that prosecutors filing criminal complaints include the race of adult defendants as perceived by law enforcement officers’ reports.
The judiciary’s Minority Justice Implementation Committee will look at the data this spring and identify any issues or disparities, the Bismarck Tribune reported.
“The ultimate goal remains to be to identify any types of racial prejudice that we may have in our justice system in an effort to make sure that everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the law, and so make sure that everybody is obtaining equal justice and that there’s no disparities based on race or ethnicity,” said Northeast District Judge Anthony Swain Benson, who chairs the 15-member panel of judges, prosecutors and attorneys.
OneFargo advocates for justice and equality. Its CEO and founder Wess Philome welcomes the race data collection and what it seeks to accomplish.
He doesn’t see an issue with collecting race based on perception, expecting few instances of the wrong race being perceived to a point it would negatively influence the data. One of the race categories is multiracial.
“Being able to provide this kind of information for people to take that kind of look, I truly believe that that’s the step our justice system needs to take to ensure that people of color are not unfairly being burdened and prosecuted and harmed by our justice system as it has done to people of color in the past,” Philome said.
Tennessee
Ex-Alabama QB Jay Barker charged with domestic violence
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former Alabama quarterback Jay Barker, who is married to country music singer Sara Evans, was arrested Saturday on a felony domestic violence charge, Tennessee authorities said.
Barker, 49, was booked into a Nashville county jail early Saturday morning, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office website. He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and placed on a $10,000 bond with a 12-hour hold because it was a domestic violence case. He was released Saturday night after posting bond.
WABM-TV in Birmingham reported that an arrest affidavit said Barker and the victim are married but separated and currently living separately. The Tennessean reported that the arrest affidavit on file with Metro Nashville General Sessions Court said two people in the vehicle were leaving a party around 1:30 a.m. Saturday when Barker allegedly reversed his vehicle “at a high rate of speed attempting to hit them, but missed.”
Barker did not answer a call from the AP and it was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could comment.
Barker is a Tuscaloosa, Alabama, sports radio talk show host. He led Alabama to the national championship in 1992. He won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award as the nation’s top upperclassman at the position and was fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1994.
