Hawaii
Former attorney receives life sentence in mother's death
HILO, Hawaii (AP) - A former attorney convicted of killing his mother on the Big Island delivered a bizarre, rambling statement to the court during sentencing, telling the judge he had "attained immortality" and is the Antichrist.
Sean Alan Rutledge, 43, was sentenced this week to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the deadly stabbing of 63-year-old Nadean Rutledge, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported .
A Hawaii jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in September.
"The prison term is appropriate given the nature of the offense and, in the court's view, the defendant is a danger to the community," Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto said.
Nadean Rutledge's body was found naked under a sheet on the side of her home in the Kapoho Vacationland subdivision in August 2015.
Sean Rutledge had displayed odd behavior at prior court proceedings, but he was found fit to stand trial.
When asked by the judge if he wanted to speak during the sentencing hearing, Rutledge responded by giving a near incoherent monologue that spanned claims of innocence to government conspiracies.
"When I left, Nadean Rutledge were not seriously injured. There were no stab wounds to the head; there were no stab wounds to the back," he said. "There were no serious injuries. Nadean Rutledge were alive."
Rutledge said that because of "disputes with the U.S. federal government" he left California for Hawaii "to leave the country." He said he contacted foreign governments and had been seeking political asylum. He also said the U.S. government tried to harass him.
"When I attained immortality, that became a circumstance that the U.S. federal government became very concerned with," Rutledge said.
The former lawyer was disbarred in New York under the name Alan Frank. He also resigned from practicing law in California to prevent disbarment hearings.
In California in 2012, the Orange County Superior Court entered a $37.7 million judgment against United Law Group, which was co-founded by Rutledge, over claims it duped mortgage-relief clients. The class-action suit had about 1,700 claimants.
Alabama
46-year-old man seeks youthful offender status in rape case
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - A middle-aged man charged with raping a child almost 30 years ago has asked a judge to treat him as a youthful offender because he was still a teenager at the time of the alleged assault.
WALA-TV reports a defense attorney made the request in Mobile County on behalf of Timothy Lee Robinson, 46.
Robinson was arrested earlier this month on charges of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl in 1989. The defense said Robinson was 17 at the time.
Robinson's lawyer is citing his client's age at the time of the alleged assault in asking a court to grant him youthful offender status. If approved, that would limit any time Robinson must spend in jail and seal court records on his case.
The district attorney's office says it will oppose the request.
Mobile police arrested Robinson last week after federal grant money was used to conduct forensic testing on backlogged evidence from old assault cases. DNA from a case involving the child matched Robinson, who was a friend of the child's family, authorities said.
The alleged victim, who now lives out of state, was contacted by police and decided to move forward in the case.
Robinson had been serving a 10-year sentence for sexual abuse in a 2011 case involving an 8-year-old girl, but was released from prison early on Oct. 31. He was arrested on a new warrant while taking steps to register as a sex offender at the sheriff's office.
Robinson is in jail with bond set at $100,000.
Utah
Man 30 years on Utah's death row seeks new trial
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Chicago native who has been on death row in Utah for more than three decades for the death of a Provo woman is seeking a new trial.
Douglas Stewart Carter, 63, is asking the state Supreme Court to order a new hearing based on information that surfaced years after his conviction, the Deseret News reported .
Carter was sentenced to death after a jury found him guilty of stabbing and shooting 57-year-old Eva Olesen - the aunt of a former Provo police chief - during a home-invasion robbery in February 1985.
His attorneys claim Provo police officers paid two witnesses' rent and instructed them to lie about the financial help. That information could have changed the case's outcome, they claim. They are seeking for a lower court to review the evidence at a new hearing.
"Mr. Carter's been on death row for over 30 years and all he's asking for is a fair trial," defense attorney Eric Zuckerman said.
Prosecutors said the claims are not true, arguing the testimony from the witnesses, who were Carter's friends, matched his own admission to police about the killing.
"Carter confessed to the police, and he told his friends, the Tovars, what he'd done," Utah Assistant Solicitor General Erin Riley said. "These new declarations don't change anything about their testimony, about Carter telling them he committed the murder."
Carter has asserted that he was coerced to confess, so the police officers' alleged behavior lends more credibility to that claim, defense attorney Paula Harms said.
"We believe the confession is thrown into doubt because the veracity of law enforcement is thrown into doubt," Harms said in court.
The lawyers presented arguments to the state's highest court last week. The court has not yet issued a decision.
New York
Former judge must face trial on weapons charge
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - A judge has denied a request to dismiss a felony weapons charge against a former upstate New York judge.
The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester reports Ontario County Judge William Kocher on Thursday declined to dismiss a weapons charge against former Rochester City Court Judge Leticia Astacio. She's charged with trying to purchase a shotgun at a sporting goods store while she was on probation for a driving under the influence conviction.
Astacio's attorney had argued that the weapons charge wasn't "consistent with the law" and a violation of the Second Amendment. He had also questioned whether an unloaded shotgun qualified as a "dangerous weapon."
Kocher wrote in a decision that the court's restriction was appropriate.
Astacio will likely face trial on the charge next year. She was removed from the bench in October.
Published: Mon, Dec 17, 2018
