National Roundup

Texas
Ex-priest accused in woman’s 1960 death extradited

HOUSTON (AP) — An 83-year-old former priest accused of killing a Texas teacher and ex-beauty queen in 1960 was set to be extradited from Arizona to Texas on Wednesday, officials said.

John Feit was scheduled to be flown from Phoenix to South Texas, where he was to be booked into the Hidalgo County Jail in Edinburg.

The frail-looking Feit, who uses a walker, has been jailed in Arizona, where he’s lived for years, following his Feb. 9 arrest in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale. He was indicted in Hidalgo County for the killing 56 years ago of Irene Garza, a 25-year-old school teacher.

Authorities allege the then-27-year-old Feit killed Garza on April 16, 1960, after hearing her confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, where he was a priest.

Her body was found days later. An autopsy determined Garza, who was named Miss All South Texas Sweetheart 1958, had been raped while unconscious and was beaten and suffocated.
Feit came under suspicion early on, telling police that he heard Garza’s confession — in the church rectory, not in the confessional — but denying he killed her.

Also, Feit had been accused of attacking another young woman in a church in a nearby town just weeks before Garza’s death. He eventually pleaded no contest and was fined $500.

Feit’s arrest last month followed other investigations over the years, including a grand jury probe in 2004 that concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

Among the evidence that pointed to Feit as a suspect over the years was his portable photographic slide viewer, which was found near Garza’s body. Two fellow priests told authorities Feit confessed to them and one of them said he saw scratches on Feit soon after Garza’s disappearance.

Rene Guerra, the former longtime Hidalgo County district attorney who had previously investigated the murder but never brought charges, has said there was no DNA evidence in the case.

Feit spent time at a treatment center in New Mexico for troubled priests and after that became a supervisor and had a part in clearing priests for assignments to parishes.

Feit left the priesthood to marry. He joined the administrative office of the St. Vincent de Paul nonprofit agency in Phoenix in 1983 and retired in 2004.

Garza’s family members and friends had pushed authorities to reopen the case, and it became an issue in the 2014 district attorney’s race in Hidalgo County when District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez promised he would re-examine the case if elected.


Kansas
Judge denies request to stop elephants’ import

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A judge has denied an animal rights group’s request to stop an import of elephants from Swaziland to three American zoos, including the Sedgwick County Zoo.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Friends of Animals’ wildlife law program filed a federal lawsuit to stop the importation of 18 African elephants. The group opposes keeping elephants in zoos because they are migratory and social animals.

Court records say that with a court hearing looming, the three zoos moved on Tuesday to anesthetize and load the elephants for a flight to the U.S.

The animal-rights group found out and asked for a restraining order to halt the transfer. A U.S. District Court judge denied the order, saying that sedating elephants again for a later transfer would be unsafe.

“(Friends of Animals) has not carried its burden to show that all the factors, taken together, weigh in favor of this emergency relief,” judge John Bates wrote. “In light of the potential danger to the elephants of stopping this transfer process midstream, Friends of Animals has not carried that burden.”

A joint statement from the zoos say they are “relieved” the restraining order request was denied. “The attempt by activists to further delay the relocation only jeopardized the animals,” Sedgwick County Zoo spokeswoman Melissa Graham said.

Michael Harris, director of the Friends of Animals wildlife law program, blasted the zoos for transporting the elephants before the court ruled on the lawsuit. “They decided to sneak in and steal away these 18 under the darkness of night,” he wrote in a statement.

The elephants are on the move to be flown to the United States and placed in zoos in Wichita, Dallas and Omaha.

Virginia
Father of boy dead in septic tank convicted

PULASKI, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man whose 5-year-old son who was found dead in a septic tank will be sentenced on two counts of child abuse and neglect.

Media outlets report that 32-year-old Paul Thomas entered an Alford plea, which means he does not admit guilt but acknowledges sufficient evidence for a conviction. Sentencing was set for later Wednesday in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

Noah Thomas and his infant sister were left alone while their mother, 31-year-old Ashley White, drove their father to work last March. White says Noah disappeared after she returned home and took a nap. The boy’s body was found four days later in a septic tank near his Dublin home.

White was convicted last month of three counts of abuse and neglect. She will be sentenced May 16.

Vermont
Man incompetent to stand trial for stealing cat

NEWPORT CITY, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont man charged with repeatedly entering a family home and stealing a cat has been found incompetent to stand trial.

The Caledonian Record reports an Orleans Superior Court judge said Monday that 54-year-old Mark Frady’s lawyer and prosecutors agreed that he’s been found not competent to face charges. He remains jailed on bail until a hospitalization hearing.

The North Troy man had pleaded not guilty to burglary and unlawful trespass charges. Police say Frady stole a cat named “Boots” from a family in Troy in January after saying he was looking for his cat, “Mason.”

Police say Frady was found in the family’s home and was asked to leave. They say Frady returned twice and was chased out of the basement.

Alabama
Man pleads guilty to threatening lawyer with death

DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida man has pleaded guilty to threatening to have an Alabama lawyer killed.

Assistant Houston County District Attorney Russ Goodman says 57-year-old Billy Wayne Duke of Panama City, Florida, recently pleaded guilty to making a terrorist threat, a felony charge.
Goodman said the court sentenced Duke to two years, which was suspended for two years of probation.

The Dothan Eagle reports that Duke was accused of leaving a voicemail message at a law office, threatening to hire someone to kill attorney Mark Johnson, who represented Duke on a criminal case in 2008.