National Roundup

Indiana Doctor faces prescription abuse charges GREENCASTLE, Ind. (AP) -- A central Indiana physician faces charges that he excessively prescribed narcotics and had sexual relations with some of his patients. Ray D. Howell of Roachdale was arrested Tuesday following an investigation into his dispensing of controlled substances. The Banner Graphic of Greencastle reports (http://bit.ly/rdhKcJ ) that he faces 15 felony counts, 12 of which accuse Howell of recklessly distributing or dispensing a controlled substance. At least three counts allege the excessive amounts of drugs Howell prescribed were written "to facilitate sexual encounters" with female patients. One patient Howell allegedly made a pass at told investigators he wrote her so many medications she felt like "a walking zombie." Howell was jailed pending a court hearing. The Putnam County prosecutor's office didn't immediately know whether he had an attorney. South Carolina Hopkins man sentenced to prison for embezzlement COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A former South Carolina bank official has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for embezzling more than $300,000 from the institution. U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles says 40-year-old Torlando Ramont Childress of Hopkins was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Columbia. U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie also ordered Childress to repay more than $377,000 to the bank and its insurance carrier. Prosecutors said Childress was the chief financial officer of South Carolina Community Bank and had the ability to make transfers into and out of all of the bank's accounts. Authorities said Childress used two accounts to embezzle $377,000 between 2006 and 2010. Childress pleaded guilty to embezzlement by a bank employee in July. He had faced up to 30 years in prison and $1,000,000 in fines. California Oceanside man pleads insanity in wife's killing OCEANSIDE, Calif. (AP) -- An Oceanside man charged with shooting to death his second wife in front of their children on New Year's Day has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The North County Times says an attorney for 29-year-old Dontaye Henderson entered the plea on Tuesday in San Diego County Superior Court. Henderson is charged with first-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Prosecutors say he shot 25-year-old Tamara Henderson at their Oceanside apartment in front of their 6-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son, then called 911 before fleeing. He was arrested several days later in St. Louis while waiting for a bus to Kentucky. Henderson is a registered sex offender. He pleaded guilty to raping his first wife in 2003. Louisiana State judge rejects murder retrial BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- A judge has rejected a claim by an attorney for condemned child-killer Dacarius Holliday that an East Baton Rouge Parish jury was "duped" last year into believing 2-year-old Darian Coon was sexually abused when he was beaten to death in 2007. The Advocate reports Richard Bourke, who is handling Holliday's appeal, argued to state District Judge Wilson Fields that the defense has evidence that contradicts trial testimony that Coon was sexually assaulted. Prosecutor Dana Cummings countered during a 90-minute hearing that the state stands by its trial witnesses and added it is a "tossup" to say which is more despicable: sexual abuse or "just plumb torture." "What this man did is despicable. It is horrid," she told the judge. In the end, Fields denied Holliday's motion for a new trial. Bourke said afterward the case now goes to the Louisiana Supreme Court. The high court automatically reviews all death penalty cases in the state. Holliday, 34, was convicted March 14, 2010, of first-degree murder in the fatal beating of Coon -- his Baton Rouge girlfriend's son -- on May 14, 2007. The same jury recommended Holliday die by lethal injection. Fields formally sentenced him July 7, 2010, to death. An autopsy revealed Coon suffered 75 contusions to his body and lacerations to his liver and kidney, among other injuries. Prosecutors argued at Holliday's trial that the killing merited the death penalty because the victim was under the age of 12 and because Holliday was engaged in the commission of second-degree cruelty to a juvenile. Several months before the trial began, prosecutors dropped aggravated rape as one of the aggravating circumstances in the case. Bourke complained Tuesday about a prosecution witness who testified at trial that Coon's body showed "unquestionable sexual abuse." Bourke, who alleged the state used sexual abuse as a "sword" against Holliday, called sexual assault of a child "morally condemned behavior." "The state can't say the issue of sexual abuse wasn't raised," he argued. "Once that was injected there was no going back." Cummings countered that aggravated rape was withdrawn as an aggravating factor because the state could not prove the specific cause of the injury to Coon's anus. "I never abandoned sexual abuse," she insisted. "I wasn't barred from mentioning sexual assault." Cummings labeled as a "ludicrous explanation" Holliday's statement to police that he put his finger in Coon's anus to check his temperature when he found him unresponsive. Prosecutors contend Holliday killed Coon because the toddler urinated on himself. Holliday had moved in with Coon's mother about six weeks before her son's death. Amanda Coon testified at Holliday's trial that May 14, 2007, was the first day she left her son alone with Holliday at her Dalton Street home. Holliday initially told police that after Coon wet himself, he forced the boy to sit on the toilet for two hours, then put him in a bathtub. Holliday told police he fell asleep and the toddler must have injured himself in a fall. The next day, the same day the autopsy was performed, Holliday called police and gave a second statement, saying he disciplined the child by hitting him with a fist. Holliday told police he may have "misfired" while hitting the boy on the arms and legs but insisted he was not a "baby-killer." Jurors heard both of Holliday's videotaped statements during the trial. Published: Thu, Oct 20, 2011