Florida
Facebook suspect faces 1st-degree murder charge
MIAMI (AP) — A Miami man accused of fatally shooting his wife and posting a photo of her corpse on Facebook has been charged with first-degree murder.
A plea hearing for 31-year-old Derek Medina is set for Wednesday. Medina had previously pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder with a firearm.
Medina told detectives after his arrest that he was acting in self-defense when he shot 26-year-old Jennifer Alonso at their South Miami home on Aug. 8. But a police detective testified at an October hearing that forensic evidence indicates Alonso was on her knees with one arm raised in front of her at the time of the shooting.
Medina’s attorney did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Monday night.
California
Shooting suspect to appear in court Wednesday
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man charged with killing a Transportation Security Administration officer during an attack at Los Angeles International Airport last month is scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday.
Paul Ciancia, 23, will have his first hearing at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, about 45 miles east of Los Angeles. He’s been housed at the facility in federal custody, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.
Ciancia will not be asked to enter a plea during the hearing, Mrozek said. Phone messages left for Ciancia’s attorneys, who are both deputy federal public defenders, were not immediately returned.
Investigators said Ciancia had a vendetta against the federal government and targeted TSA officers when he pulled a semi-automatic rifle from a bag and fatally shot Gerardo Hernandez.
Ciancia was shot and wounded by airport police in LAX’s Terminal 3 on Nov. 1 as passengers scrambled to safety. He was initially listed in critical condition but was upgraded to fair at a Los Angeles hospital before being placed in federal custody.
An autopsy showed Hernandez, 39, was shot a dozen times with bullets grazing his heart and piercing his bladder and intestines.
Ciancia is charged with killing Hernandez and wounding three other people, including two other TSA officers. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Texas
Master Sgt. goes on trial over prostitution ring
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — Female soldiers at Fort Hood testified Monday that they were recruited for a prostitution ring set up by a sergeant involved in the sexual assault and harassment program at the Central Texas post.
The testimony came as the court-martial began for another Fort Hood soldier accused of using the service, which Army prosecutors said preyed upon young, cash-strapped female soldiers at Fort Hood.
Master Sgt. Brad Grimes is a 17-year Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Army prosecutors said in the military court on Monday that Grimes participated in the prostitution ring set up by another Fort Hood sergeant not yet charged but still under Army investigation, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
The case arose from an investigation of a lower-level coordinator of Fort Hood’s sexual assault and harassment prevention program. The Army said a noncommissioned officer involved in the program recruited female soldiers for the prostitution ring.
Defense attorney Daniel Conway said Grimes is being court-martialed because he refused a deal to testify against the other soldier. Grimes denied the charges of adultery and conspiring to pay for sex from a Fort Hood private.
“At the end of the day, Master Sgt. Grimes chose to do the right thing and not have sex with that young lady,” Conway said. “This is really a case about sex parties, and Master Sgt. Grimes had nothing to do with that.”
Conway asked Col. Gregory Gross, the military judge presiding over the trial, to throw out the case against Grimes. He argued that the Army high command and top federal officials, including President Barack Obama, had biased the process by pressing for prosecutions over military sexual assault allegations. Gross declined to dismiss the case.
Mississippi
Credit card suit in dispute over jurisdiction
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Attorney General Jim Hood’s lawsuit against six credit card insurers should be returned to state chancery court, a three-judge federal appeals panel ruled Monday.
But first, the panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, wants a federal judge in Mississippi to formally say why the case belongs in federal court.
If there is no federal jurisdiction over the case, the panel said the lawsuit should return to Hinds County Chancery Court where Hood originally filed it in June of 2012.
U.S. District Judge William H. Barbour Jr. ruled the lawsuits — now combined into one case — would remain in federal court. Hood appealed to the 5th Circuit and Barbour said he’d wait on a ruling before proceeding.
Specifically, Barbour ruled federal banking law pre-empted Hood’s allegation that the companies had violated the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act by charging consumers for products they did not want or need.
Hood is challenging the companies’ charges for Payment Protection plans, which suspend payments under certain circumstances — such as death, disaster, disability, unemployment, marriage, divorce, or hospitalization — without adverse consequences to the customer, according to court records.
The charges are ordinarily calculated as a percentage of the customer’s outstanding card balance and customers pay a separate fee for these services each month.
Hood argued he brought the lawsuits on behalf of the citizens of Mississippi and not for people everywhere. The companies argued the issue was governed by federal class action and banking laws.
The 5th Circuit panel said the companies’ argument did not provide a basis for the case staying in federal court.
“To the extent that the district court has not yet ruled on whether substantial federal question jurisdiction exists, this case is remanded for the district court to make that determination. If the district court has already ruled that there is no substantial federal question jurisdiction, or makes such a determination upon further review, then these cases should be remanded to the state court as there would be no federal jurisdiction,” the 5th Circuit panel said.
