Utah: Police release 911 tape in child slaying case
LAYTON, Utah (AP) — Police in Utah have released a 911 tape of a father seeking help after finding his two children dead at home.
Kenneth Warhola told Layton emergency dispatchers on Sept. 8 that he came home about 5:45 p.m. to find his wife locked in a bedroom with their son and daughter, ages 8 and 7.
He told the dispatcher the children felt cold to the touch.
When police arrived, they found the children dead.
Their mother, 44-year-old Sun Cha (Soon-cha) Warhola, is accused of strangling the children. She faces a Nov. 19 court date on two aggravated murder charges.
Kenneth Warhola told dispatchers said he had to go use a neighbor’s phone to call for help because the phone inside his home was disconnected.
Wyoming: Man convicted of murder in Cheyenne slaying
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A man charged with first-degree murder in a fatal shooting in Cheyenne last year has been found guilty.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports that jurors reached the verdict against 30-year- old Charles E. Jones on Monday.
Jones was accused of shooting 21-year-old Adonnis Whitehead at a party in July 2009 and taking the money that Whitehead had received in an insurance settlement.
Jones said he fired after a drug deal turned bad. He told jurors that he sold Whitehead marijuana at the party and that Whitehead pulled out a gun when it was time to pay.
Prosecutors said Jones and his brother-in-law entered the home, and Whitehead was ordered to the floor. They allege Jones demanded money from Whitehead, then killed him.
Nebraska: Man charged with 7 counts of securities fraud
GERING, Neb. (AP) — A 60-year-old Gering man has been charged with securities fraud.
Court documents say Jonathan Mannering faces five counts of securities sales fraud and two of securities sales by an unregistered broker.
According to an affidavit from Karen Reynolds, a securities analyst who works for the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, Mannering set up Champion Consulting Corp. in Gering. The affidavit says John and Patricia Takuski, of Henry, reported that they lost around $17,000 they had invested in Champion since 2004.
In the affidavit, Reynolds says Mannering was not a registered broker and had fraudulently represented the return for investing in Champion Consulting.
Mannering remains in jail. His attorney did not immediately return a call Tuesday.
California: Man linked to where woman’s body was found
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A San Jose housekeeper, artist and former assistant apartment complex manager has for the first time linked a man on trial for murder with the carport where a woman’s body was dumped nearly 30 years ago.
Barbara Kelch testified Monday in the death penalty trial of 60-year-old Melvin Forte, who’s charged in the shooting death of 23-year-old Ines Sailor. Her body was found Jan. 1, 1981 in a carport in East San Jose.
Kelch told Forte, who’s acting as his own attorney, that she recalled seeing him often at the 142-unit complex — but acknowledged she didn’t remember him until she saw him in court.
She also said she suspected Forte of “suspicious activity” because he was much older than the people with whom she saw him and because his unit had frequent visitors.
Kentucky: Man sentenced to 9 years in punching death
COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A northern Kentucky man has been sentenced to nine years in prison on his guilty plea to punching a man, causing his death.
According to The Kentucky Enquirer, 25-year-old Matthew Kaylor of Park Hills was sentenced on Monday in Covington. Kaylor had gone against his attorney’s advice last month in pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter.
Investigators say Kaylor randomly slugged 27-year-old Patrick McGrath of Fort Wright in March as McGrath walked out of a bar, looking the other way from Kaylor. McGrath fell, striking his head on the pavement and died.
In a letter written by Kaylor and read in open court, he apologized to McGrath’s family.
Kaylor will be eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of his sentence — about two years.
Indiana: Man on trial in wife’s weight bar crushing death
WABASH, Ind. (AP) — A prosecutor says a northern Indiana man charged with killing his wife lied to police about what time he arrived home to find her throat crushed under a weight bar.
The trial began Monday in a Wabash County court for Scott Pattison on murder charges for the July 2009 death of 36-year-old Lisa Pattison. The Chronicle-Tribune reports Prosecutor William Hartley Jr. told jurors that a video surveillance system at the couple’s home near LaFontaine shows Scott Pattison returned from work at 8:30 a.m., not at 11:30 a.m. as he told police.
Defense attorney Stanley Campbell said Pattison didn’t kill his wife. Campbell said the weight bench’s safety devices weren’t being used and that Lisa Pattison had antidepressants and a high level of diet medication in her system when she died.
Massachusetts: Serial killer to be arraigned in 4 additional deaths
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A serial killer already serving life in prison for murdering four women in western Massachusetts faces arraignment in the slayings of four other women.
Authorities say Alfred Gaynor confessed to the unsolved slayings of one woman in 1995 and three others in 1997.
He is scheduled for arraignment Tuesday in Springfield.
Gaynor’s confession came as part of a plea bargain for his nephew, Paul Fickling, who had been charged in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her 22-month-old daughter.
Fickling pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter. Gaynor, who’d recently claimed responsibility that crime, admitted instead to the four unsolved slayings in which he’d long been a suspect.
