Nevada
Inmate serving life for fatal Vegas bombing escapes prison
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Authorities were searching Tuesday for a 42-year-old convicted bombmaker who escaped from a Nevada prison where he was serving a life sentence for a deadly 2007 explosion outside a Las Vegas Strip resort.
Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered an investigation into the incident after he said late Tuesday his office learned the escapee had been missing from the medium-security prison since early in the weekend.
“This is unacceptable,” Sisolak said in a statement.
Officials didn’t realize until Tuesday morning Porfirio Duarte-Herrera was missing during a head count at Southern Desert Correctional Center near Las Vegas. A state Department of Corrections statement said search teams were looking for him.
Duarte-Herrera, from Nicaragua, was convicted in 2010 of killing a hot dog stand vendor using a motion-activated bomb in a coffee cup atop a car parked at the Luxor hotel-casino.
Records show his co-defendant, Omar Rueda-Denvers, remained in custody Tuesday. The 47-year-old from Guatemala is serving a life sentence at a different Nevada prison for murder, attempted murder, explosives and other charges.
A Clark County District Court jury spared both men from the death penalty in the slaying of Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio, whom prosecutors identified as the boyfriend of Rueda-Denvers’ ex-girlfriend.
Prosecutors said jealousy was the motive for the attack on the top deck of a two-story parking structure. The blast initially raised fears of a terrorist attack on the Strip.
Officials described Duarte-Herrera as 5 feet, 4 inches tall and 135 pounds, with brown eyes and brown hair.
Sisolak said his office ordered corrections officials to “conduct and complete a thorough investigation into this event as quickly as possible.”
“This kind of security lapse cannot be permitted and those responsible will be held responsible,” he said.
California
School athletic trainer charged with sex assault of 10 girls
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An athletic trainer who worked at two Los Angeles high schools was charged Tuesday with sexually assaulting 10 students.
Richard Turner, 64, is accused of 18 felony counts, including rape, other sexual assaults by force and the sexual penetration of an unconscious person, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.
Turner remains jailed pending an October arraignment. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had an attorney to speak on his behalf.
Prosecutors allege that Turner sexually assaulted 10 girls between 15 and 17 years old while working at Van Nuys High School and Birmingham Community Charter High School in the San Fernando Valley.
Prosecutors allege that the girls — all student athletes seeking treatment for sports injuries — were assaulted between 2017 and this year. Some alleged attacks occurred on campus and others away from the schools.
Turner was arrested Wednesday, a day after a Birmingham student accused him of touching her inappropriately, Los Angeles police Capt. Jeff Bratcher told the Los Angeles Times.
Bratcher said nine other students came forward after police released Turner’s name publicly and urged other victims to contact police.
“A school is a place where our children should feel safe and protected by those who we are supposed to trust,” District Attorney George Gascón said at a news conference. “It is crushing for the victims’ families and our education system when someone takes advantage of a youth.”
Bratcher said a student at Van Nuys High reported Turner to police in 2017 but the DA’s office declined to file charges for lack of evidence, Bratcher said.
The Los Angeles Unified School District told the Times that Turner was a contractor who worked on a limited basis in the district.
California
Man who lived with dead roommate allegedly cashed his checks
CHICO, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California man who lived with the body of his dead roommate for four years was charged with stealing his money by writing dozens of checks on his account, prosecutors said.
Darren Pirtle, 57, of Chico, was charged Monday in Butte County Superior Court with identity theft and forgery. He was expected to enter a plea on Thursday.
Pirtle is accused of forging checks to himself from the credit union account of Kevin Olson, 64, who hadn’t been seen since October 2018, according to the Butte County district attorney’s office.
Olson’s body was found last week on the floor of a back bedroom of his home, prosecutors said.
Authorities searched the home after starting a missing-person investigation in August, after a relative told police he hadn’t seen or heard from Olson for about four years, the DA’s office said.
Relatives said they had tried over the years to contact Olson and spoke to Pirtle, who gave various excuses for his absence, District Attorney Mike Ramsey said in a statement.
A Chico police officer who contacted Pirtle was told that Olson was out of town, the DA’s office said.
Olson was retired from the United States Navy and his monthly retirement checks were sent directly into his Navy Federal Credit Union account, prosecutors said. His mortgage was still being paid, they said.
Beginning in July 2019, Pirtle allegedly forged about 50 checks on the account, authorities said.
Authorities believe the Olson died in late 2018. An autopsy will be held to determine the cause of his death.
Mississippi
Man gets 30 years in slayings of father, grandmother
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A man accused of shooting to death his father and his grandmother in 2014 has pleaded guilty and will serve a 30-year sentence, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Tyrone C. Liddell Jr., 29, entered the plea to second-degree murder and manslaughter in the deaths of Tyrone C. Liddell Sr. and Bertha Lee Liddell.
In a news release, Hinds County District Attorney Jody E. Owens, II said the case was delayed for over eight years while Liddell underwent evaluation and treatment at the State Hospital.
“This is beyond tragic for any family to endure,” Owens said. “The victims’ family approved the plea offer ... I want the family to know our thoughts and prayers are with them as they continue to mourn these horrific losses.”
Owens said Liddell will serve a 30-year day-for-day sentence in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections with no early release.
Ohio
Teen sentenced to life in slaying of off-duty police officer
CLEVELAND (AP) — A 19-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday in the slaying of off-duty Cleveland police officer Shane Bartek during a carjacking in December and for a series of separate armed robberies in and around Cleveland the previous weeks.
Tamara McLoyd, wrists cuffed behind her back, showed no emotion when Cuyahoga Judge John P. O’Donnell told her she would not be eligible for parole until she is in her 70s.
A jury found McLoyd guilty in the New Year’s Eve slaying of Bartek on Aug. 3. Later that month, she and two others were convicted of separate armed robberies that prosecutors say occurred between Nov. 2 and Dec. 19.
Bartek joined the Cleveland police department in 2019. Authorities say he was shot and killed in the parking lot of his apartment complex after he and McLoyd struggled for control of her gun. She confessed to killing Bartek, but told detectives she did not mean to shoot him.
Cleveland Police Chief Wayne Drummond called Bartek “a true public servant” with a strong interest in community policing at a memorial service in January.
McLoyd did not address the court on the advice of her attorneys. Kevin Cafferkey, one of her attorneys, asked O’Donnell to show McLoyd mercy, saying she has unresolved behavioral issues first diagnosed when she was 6.
Bartek’s twin sister, Summer, told O’Donnell that she and her brother were born addicted to drugs and were placed in foster care before being adopted.
She said that when Shane was shot, she was shot as well.
“I’m a twinless twin,” Summer Bartek said. “Our souls were connected by a cord that nothing could break except death.”
Kansas
Prosecutor seeks 3rd trial for Kansas woman in 2 killings
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas prosecutor has indicated that he intends to try a woman for the third time in the killings of her ex-husband and his girlfriend two decades ago.
Dana Chandler is accused of killing 47-year-old Mike Sisco and his fiancee, 53-year-old Karen Harkness, in 2002 in Topeka.
Chandler’s second trial on two counts of first-degree murder ended in a hung jury last month.
Chandler, who has always maintained she was in Colorado when the murders occurred, was convicted in her first trial in 2012, but the Kansas Supreme Court overturned that conviction because of prosecutorial misconduct.
In a court filing last week responding to a defense motion seeking an acquittal, Shawnee County Deputy District Attorney Charles Kitt indicated prosecutors will try Chandler again, The Topeka Capital Journal reported.
Prosecutors contend that Chandler shot the victims because she was bitter and upset by her divorce from Sisco. They acknowledged they had little physical evidence tying her to the killings but said the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming.
Chandler’s attorneys argued that police did not investigate other potential suspects and conducted a sloppy investigation.
California
Man charged in hate attacks on women
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A 25-year-old man has been charged with pepper spraying women in hate attacks in Southern California, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Johnny Deven Young faces multiple charges including assault and illegal use of tear gas with enhancements for using a deadly weapon and hate crimes, the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
Prosecutors said Young posted videos of himself pepper spraying and harassing women online and declared himself a so-called “incel,” a member of an online community of men who call themselves involuntary celibates and express rage against women.
Young was suspected of confronting female victims outside bars in Costa Mesa and assaulting several people in attacks between November 2021 and April of this year, according to police.
“These charges send a very strong message to that entire community that we will not tolerate violence against women in any form,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
Young was arrested in San Mateo County and returned to Orange County, where he appeared in court on Monday. He is held in lieu of $500,000 bail and his arraignment was delayed to Oct. 10.
A message seeking comment was left at the public defender’s office.
