National Roundup

California
Live video leads police to teen suspect in killing

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A teenager suspected of a killing who was named one of Texas' 10 Most Wanted fugitives was caught in Los Angeles on Tuesday after posting a live video on social media, police said.

Christopher Ricardo Gonzalez, 18, was wanted by Dallas police on suspicion of murder, aggravated robbery and engaging in organized crime. He was arrested by Los Angeles officers after Dallas detectives found him when he "posted his location on Instagram Live," police in Texas said in a news release.

They declined to provide any additional information about the video.

Investigators say Gonzalez is affiliated with the Bloods street gang and he had been named to Texas' Most Wanted list in August.

He is accused of fatally shooting Horace Davis, 54, in Dallas last year. Officers who were responding to a report of gunshots found Davis dead in the driver's seat of a parked car and later got evidence linking Gonzalez to the crime, investigators said.

A warrant was issued Aug. 21, the same day he was dubbed a top Texas fugitive.

Gonzalez also is among a group of suspects sought in several home-invasion robberies in Dallas between October 2016 and February 2017.

He was in custody Tuesday and expected to be extradited to Texas, police said. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.

Kentucky
Teen pleads not guilty to murder, heroin charges

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A teen who police say admitted to fatally shooting a man and importing heroin has entered a not guilty plea to the charges against him.

News outlets report that 18-year-old Timothy Ganther Jr. was arrested Monday in connection with the Sept. 3 death of 28-year-old Jerome Wadsworth, of Michigan, who was found in a ditch in Lexington and later died at a hospital.

Lexington police Sgt. Jervis Middleton says Ganther and Wadsworth were acquaintances who had been in an argument.

Court documents say Ganther had admitted to intentionally shooting Wadsworth, as well as importing more than 100 grams of heroin from Ohio to Kentucky with intent to sell. On Tuesday, Ganther pleaded not guilty to murder, importing heroin and trafficking in a controlled substance.

He's been assigned a public defender.

New York
Government seeks prison time for Weiner in sexting case

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors says former Congressman Anthony Weiner should go to prison for about two years for engaging in sexting with a 15-year-old girl.

Prosecutors filed papers in Manhattan federal court Wednesday urging a judge to send a message at sentencing Monday.

The 53-year-old New York Democrat said in a submission last week that he is undergoing treatment and was profoundly sorry for subjecting the North Carolina high school student to what his lawyers called his "deep sickness."

Defense lawyers had portrayed the girl as an aggressor, saying she wanted to generate material for a book and possibly influence the presidential election.

As part of a plea bargain, Weiner has agreed not to appeal any sentence between 21 and 27 months.

Massachusetts
Trial opens for man accused of plotting to behead blogger

BOSTON (AP) — A prosecutor and defense attorney have painted starkly different pictures of a Massachusetts man accused of participating in a plot to behead a conservative blogger who angered Muslims when she organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Siegmann told jurors during her opening statement Wednesday that David Wright, his uncle and another man agreed to kill Pamela Geller in 2015. The plot wasn't carried out.

Siegmann said Wright also wanted to wage other attacks in the U.S. and inflict more than the damage caused by the Boston bombing.

Wright's attorney sought to portray him as a lost young man who became consumed by the Islamic State group in attempt to escape reality.

The cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, ended in gunfire, with two Muslim gunmen killed by police.

Maine
ACLU lawsuit seeks to expand abortion access

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood have filed a federal lawsuit they hope will expand access to abortions in Maine.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, challenges a Maine law that requires abortions be performed solely by physicians. The law prevented advanced practice registered nurses from performing the procedures.

The groups were joined by four nurses and abortion provider Maine Family Planning in filing the lawsuit. They say the rule is especially punitive in Maine's rural areas, where access to doctors who provide abortions can be scarce.

Other northern New England states, Vermont and New Hampshire, do not have the same rule.

The lawsuit names Maine's attorney general and several district attorneys as defendants. A spokesman for Attorney General Janet Mills said the office hadn't yet seen it.

Pennsylvania
Man charged with killing student denies harming her

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Pennsylvania man charged with killing a Temple University student is denying the allegation.

The attorney for 29-year-old Joshua Hupperterz said outside court Wednesday that Hupperterz tells him he "didn't cause any harm" to Jenna Burleigh.

Burleigh's body was found early this month on property belonging to the defendant's grandmother. The property is located about 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of the Philadelphia college's campus.

The 22-year-old Burleigh vanished at the end of August. She was last seen on surveillance video leaving a bar near campus with Hupperterz, a former Temple student. She had just started at Temple as a junior transfer student.

Hupperterz was due in court for a preliminary hearing, but the case was continued until late November.

A coroner found Burleigh died of blunt trauma and strangulation.