National Roundup

Kansas
Boy, 12, arrested for knife thrown after video game argument
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a 12-year-old boy has been arrested after throwing a knife at a 9-year-old boy when they got into an argument while playing video games at a Wichita home.

The Wichita Eagle reports that 9-year-old and his 13-year-old brother were in the home of the 12-year-old when the argument erupted Saturday night. Police say the younger boy was taken to a hospital with a minor cut to his back. Neither of the older boys was hurt.

Police say the 12-year-old was arrested early Sunday on suspicion of aggravated battery and aggravated assault.

Police say the investigation is ongoing.

Minnesota
Man pleads guilty to faking death for insurance
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota man accused of faking his own death eight years ago in Eastern Europe to collect a $2 million life insurance policy has pleaded guilty.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that 54-year-old Igor Vorotinov, formerly of Maple Grove, is to be sentenced for mail fraud on July 29 in U.S. District Court.

Authorities alleged Vorotinov in 2011 arranged for a corpse to be dressed in his clothes and planted his identification on the body before placing it along a road in the former Soviet republic of Moldova. An insurance company sent his ex-wife a $2 million check in 2012.

The couple divorced in 2010, a few months after Vorotinov took out a life insurance policy and designated his then-wife as the primary beneficiary. Irina Vorotinov in 2011 identified a corpse in Moldova as her husband’s, then returned to the U.S. with a death certificate and cremated remains and received the life insurance payment from Mutual of Omaha. Money was then transferred to her son and to accounts in Switzerland and Moldova, authorities said.

The scheme also included a 2011 funeral service at a Minneapolis cemetery, where an urn was placed in a niche. Tests later determined the remains were not Vorotinov’s. It’s not clear whose they were.

Irina Vorotinov pleaded guilty in 2016 to fraud charges and was sentenced to about three years in prison.

Son Alkon Vorotinov was sentenced in 2015 to three years of probation for his involvement.

Igor Vorotinov was indicted in 2015. He was arrested in November 2018 and returned to the U.S. after an unidentified tipster contacted the FBI. He had been living in Transnistria, a small Russian-controlled region of Moldova, under a new name, Nikoly Patoka.

Illinois
Jury convicts man of drug-case informant’s death
CHICAGO (AP) — Jurors in Chicago have convicted a man in the 2012 murder of an informant who cooperated with a federal investigation into a central Illinois drug ring.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports Marquelle Palmer, of Bloomington, was found guilty Friday of murder in the death of Melissa Woods, whose body was found in 2012 in the basement of a boarded-up building in Chicago.

Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Marilyn Salas-Wail told jurors during closing arguments Thursday that Woods “should not have died alone and scared and helpless.”

Woods was to testify in a drug case targeting Palmer, his brother and more than a dozen others accused of trafficking cocaine out of a Bloomington car dealership. Palmer is serving a 14-year sentence on a federal conviction in connection to his role in the drug ring.

Connecticut
Woman found dead in suitcase had suffocated; ex is charged
GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) — The Connecticut medical examiner says the woman found dead in a suitcase along a road in February had suffocated.

The office confirmed Monday that homicidal asphyxia was the cause of death of 24-year-old Valerie Reyes, of New Rochelle, New York. The office did not say whether she died before she was in the suitcase.

Her body was found by Greenwich town employees Feb. 5. She had been reported missing by her family six days prior.

Her ex-boyfriend, Javier Da Silva Rojas, of New York City, is being held on a federal charge of kidnapping resulting in death. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

His attorneys haven’t commented, but he told police after his arrest that Reyes fell and hit her head.

Ohio
Trial date set for mom accused of killing 3 sons
BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio woman accused of suffocating her three sons has a new trial date.

Brittany Pilkington, of Bellefontaine (behl-FOWN’-tihn), has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder charges in the deaths of her toddler and two infants in 2014 and 2015. Prosecutors say she was jealous over the attention her husband gave the children.

The Springfield News-Sun reports Pilkington’s trial is scheduled Sept. 23.

A judge in February found parts of Pilkington’s police interrogation without legal counsel, food, water and rest crossed the line, but ruled most of her statements to police can be used at trial.

Defense attorneys had argued the statements should be tossed. They’ve said their experts found Pilkington has brain damage and a low IQ, impairing her ability to knowingly waive her rights and understand the interrogation.

New Jersey
Man gets prison term for child porn, sex contact
MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (AP) — A man who had sexual contact with boys and possessed more than 1,000 images of child pornography has been sentenced to six years in state prison.

Alan Berman will also be on lifetime parole supervision under the sentence imposed Friday.

The 58-year-old Bordentown City man pleaded guilty in January to child endangerment and aggravated criminal sexual contact charges. Burlington County prosecutors say he knew his victims and their families, adding that the crimes occurred at Berman’s home.

Prosecutors say their investigation began in 2018 after they got information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about Berman’s online activities. An Arkansas woman said her teenage son was contacted online by a man — later identified as Berman — who tried to engage him in inappropriate conversations.