California
Man who landed plane twice on naval base pleads guilty to charges
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man who illegally landed his small aircraft on a naval base twice and stole a Navy truck has pled guilty to federal charges, officials said.
Andrew Kyle White, 37, pleaded guilty to a felony count of theft of government property and illegal entry into a naval installation.
The San Diego man first flew a Glastar airplane — a home-built kit airplane popular among hobbyists — to San Clemente Island in October 2023 and landed on a U.S. Navy airstrip without permission.
The wind-swept island, part of Naval Base Coronado, is off the Pacific coast about 65 miles (100 miles) northwest of San Diego and is the southernmost of California’s Channel Islands.
At the time, he received and signed a letter that notified him that it was a federal crime to travel to San Clemente Island without the Navy’s permission and instructed him not to return.
But on April 6 of this year, military authorities say, White flew his plane to San Clemente Island again and landed it without permission. While on the island, he stole a Navy-owned Ford F-150 truck and drove it around the island, crashing it into locked gates that blocked off certain locations.
He was not detained until the next morning when he was seen on security footage walking around, according to charging documents. Officials discovered he had driven the truck onto unpaved terrain and gotten stuck.
White’s attorney did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Officials estimate that White’s intrusion onto the base cost nearly 500 man-hours and resulted in a $500,000 loss to the Navy.
“Whatever (White’s) intentions were, the military did not know them,” prosecutors said in court documents. “The island went on a complete lockdown.”
White was initially released on bond but has been in federal custody since he cut off his ankle bracelet earlier this year.
He will be sentenced Sept. 29 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison for theft of government property and up to six months for illegally entering a naval installation.
New Hampshire
State Supreme Court to hear death row inmate’s appeal for life sentence
New Hampshire’s only inmate on death row has been granted a rare opportunity to plead his case for a life sentence before the state’s highest court.
In a brief single-page order handed down Monday, New Hampshire’s Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of Michael Addison, 45, who killed Manchester Officer Michael Briggs in 2006.
The decision is a surprising development in a case where the court had repeatedly denied reconsidering Addison’s death sentence, and upheld that execution was an appropriate punishment a decade prior.
But in 2019, New Hampshire lawmakers narrowly abolished the death penalty despite fears from Briggs’ family and others that doing so would result in Addison’s sentence being commuted. At the time, supporters stressed that the repeal wouldn’t apply retroactively to Addison, but others warned that courts could interpret it differently — something that Addison’s attorneys are hoping for as well.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican and former state attorney general who advocated for Addison’s death sentence, has previously described Addison as a “cold-blooded, coldhearted, remorseless killer.”
Part of her successful gubernatorial campaign last year included TV ads that touted she “put a cop killer on death row.”
Briggs was killed on Oct. 16, 2006, while responding to a domestic disturbance call in Manchester, New Hampshire, involving Addison, who was then 26 years old. After arriving at the scene, Briggs told Addison to stop walking away. Addison fatally shot Briggs and then fled to his grandmother’s house in Massachusetts. He was arrested later that day and eventually convicted of capital murder in 2008 and sentenced to die.
Currently, 23 states have abolished or overturned the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Among the 27 states that allow capital punishment, governors have issued moratoriums on the death penalty in four of them.
New Hampshire hasn’t executed anyone since 1939.
Kentucky
Lawsuit dismissed in funding dispute over kinship caregiver law
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit against Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration in a funding dispute that has delayed a kinship caregiver law, which aims to support adults willing to care for young relatives who endured suspected abuse or neglect at home.
The Democratic governor signed the legislation in 2024, and his administration has praised the measure for seeking to help children in bad situations be placed with relatives or close family friends. The dispute revolves around whether funding is accessible to carry out the state law’s intent — enabling relatives who take temporary custody of children to become eligible for foster care payments. Kinship caregivers are raising an estimated 55,000 children in Kentucky.
Beshear warned in 2024 that the state’s Republican-led legislature had not approved the necessary funding. More than a year later, he maintains those funds are still needed for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services to put the measure into action.
“It is simple: The state cannot implement programs and policies if we don’t have the funding needed to do so,” Beshear said in a news release Monday.
The two-term governor is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2028.
Republican state Auditor Allison Ball said she will continue her fight. She filed the lawsuit, claiming the law was in limbo because Beshear’s administration refused to put it into action.
The suit says Beshear’s administration is required to “do whatever it takes” to carry out state laws and asked a judge to “remind” them of that duty. It also sought access to information as part of the auditor’s investigation into the matter. That review is looking at whether it would cost about $19 million, as estimated by the administration, to carry out the law and whether the cabinet had funds to implement it.
In his decision Monday, Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate noted that no subpoenas had been sought, the cabinet had complied with many of the auditor’s requests, and the cabinet had indicated the auditor “need only provide a name and CHFS will set up an interview.”
“This indicates a willingness by CHFS to cooperate with the investigation, contrary to the auditor’s assertion that CHFS has no intention of cooperating with or participating in any further investigation,” Wingate said.
The judge added that the auditor “has not yet exhausted administrative means to obtain documents and the matter has not yet ripened into a concrete dispute.”
Responding to the ruling, Ball has directed the issuance of subpoenas as the “necessary next step” in the matter, her office said Monday in a news release. The judge’s ruling affirmed the auditor’s authority to subpoena officials and any withheld documents, the release says.
“These subpoenas will reveal the truth about the actual cost and all available resources to fund this program,” Ball said in the release.
The governor said he plans to include the necessary funding in his next budget proposal to lawmakers “so we can get these policies moving forward to help these children.” Lawmakers will begin their 2026 session in January, and passing the state’s next two-year budget will be their biggest task.
The 2024 law is meant to fix what child welfare advocates say is a flaw in the support system. It gives people considerably more time to apply to become foster parents for their young relatives, and thus eligible for foster care payments to help support the children already in their care.
South Carolina
Judge clears way for execution of South Carolina inmate who thinks most laws are unconstitutional
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A judge in South Carolina has ruled a death row inmate’s beliefs that most laws are unconstitutional and citizens have an absolute right to defend their property to the death are not proof he is mentally incompetent and should be executed.
The ruling clears the way for now for Steven Bixby to be put to death for the 2003 killings of two police officers who came to his family’s Abbeville home to discuss a dispute between them and a construction crew that had come to widen the road. Bixby’s lawyers can ask to appeal the ruling.
The state Supreme Court had stopped Bixby’s execution weeks before it could be scheduled and asked a lower court to decide if his beliefs about the legal system kept him from helping his lawyers as they appeal his death sentence.
Judge R. Scott Sprouse noted in his ruling, dated late last week, that Bixby cooperates with his lawyers and the psychiatrists treating and questioning him.
While Bixby “has often disagreed with counsel and expresses distrust regarding their strategy in this proceeding, the evidence demonstrates that he understands their role, the rationale for why they are engaging in this competency proceeding, and that he can choose whether or not to cooperate with them,” Sprouse wrote.
Bixby, 58, shot Abbeville County deputy Danny Wilson as the officer knocked on the front door of his parents’ home in December 2003, a day after they threatened the road crew, authorities said.
They dragged Wilson’s dying body inside and restrained him with his own handcuffs. Then they killed state Constable Donnie Ouzts as he and other officers rushed to the home after realizing Wilson had been missing for about an hour. That led to a 12-hour standoff as officers and the Bixbys fired hundreds of bullets at each other, investigators said.
Bixby’s parents were also charged with murder but died behind bars.
The judge held a hearing last month to determine if Bixby was competent. Both sides had experts testify. One called by Bixby’s lawyers said the isolation of prison has only made his beliefs worse and that Bixby is stuck in a mindset that never grew.
But the judge put more weight with the ones called by the state noting two of them have been dealing with Bixby since shortly after the killings and while Bixby has been angry with their testimony about his mental state before he understands they have a job to do.
Those experts testified Bixby isn’t going to give up his beliefs about the law and the Constitution and he is ready to die as a martyr if his appeals fail. They said Bixby thinks he will be reunited with his parents in heaven.
The psychiatrist who sees and treats death row inmates in South Carolina said Bixby summed up his mental state to him as “”I’m not crazy. I’m not a mental health case. I may be an (expletive), but I’m not crazy.”
After the hearing, Bibxy sent his own handwritten motion to the judge. He reiterated his long held belief that his family was justified killing Wilson because the deputy was trying to help take their land. He also suggested the judge would commit treason if he does not stop his execution and set him free.
“I am an innocent man!! Let freedom ring & let those committing treason swing!!!” Bixby wrote. “Like Thomas Jefferson: I am standing on principle even if I stand alone.”
Man who landed plane twice on naval base pleads guilty to charges
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man who illegally landed his small aircraft on a naval base twice and stole a Navy truck has pled guilty to federal charges, officials said.
Andrew Kyle White, 37, pleaded guilty to a felony count of theft of government property and illegal entry into a naval installation.
The San Diego man first flew a Glastar airplane — a home-built kit airplane popular among hobbyists — to San Clemente Island in October 2023 and landed on a U.S. Navy airstrip without permission.
The wind-swept island, part of Naval Base Coronado, is off the Pacific coast about 65 miles (100 miles) northwest of San Diego and is the southernmost of California’s Channel Islands.
At the time, he received and signed a letter that notified him that it was a federal crime to travel to San Clemente Island without the Navy’s permission and instructed him not to return.
But on April 6 of this year, military authorities say, White flew his plane to San Clemente Island again and landed it without permission. While on the island, he stole a Navy-owned Ford F-150 truck and drove it around the island, crashing it into locked gates that blocked off certain locations.
He was not detained until the next morning when he was seen on security footage walking around, according to charging documents. Officials discovered he had driven the truck onto unpaved terrain and gotten stuck.
White’s attorney did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Officials estimate that White’s intrusion onto the base cost nearly 500 man-hours and resulted in a $500,000 loss to the Navy.
“Whatever (White’s) intentions were, the military did not know them,” prosecutors said in court documents. “The island went on a complete lockdown.”
White was initially released on bond but has been in federal custody since he cut off his ankle bracelet earlier this year.
He will be sentenced Sept. 29 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison for theft of government property and up to six months for illegally entering a naval installation.
New Hampshire
State Supreme Court to hear death row inmate’s appeal for life sentence
New Hampshire’s only inmate on death row has been granted a rare opportunity to plead his case for a life sentence before the state’s highest court.
In a brief single-page order handed down Monday, New Hampshire’s Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of Michael Addison, 45, who killed Manchester Officer Michael Briggs in 2006.
The decision is a surprising development in a case where the court had repeatedly denied reconsidering Addison’s death sentence, and upheld that execution was an appropriate punishment a decade prior.
But in 2019, New Hampshire lawmakers narrowly abolished the death penalty despite fears from Briggs’ family and others that doing so would result in Addison’s sentence being commuted. At the time, supporters stressed that the repeal wouldn’t apply retroactively to Addison, but others warned that courts could interpret it differently — something that Addison’s attorneys are hoping for as well.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican and former state attorney general who advocated for Addison’s death sentence, has previously described Addison as a “cold-blooded, coldhearted, remorseless killer.”
Part of her successful gubernatorial campaign last year included TV ads that touted she “put a cop killer on death row.”
Briggs was killed on Oct. 16, 2006, while responding to a domestic disturbance call in Manchester, New Hampshire, involving Addison, who was then 26 years old. After arriving at the scene, Briggs told Addison to stop walking away. Addison fatally shot Briggs and then fled to his grandmother’s house in Massachusetts. He was arrested later that day and eventually convicted of capital murder in 2008 and sentenced to die.
Currently, 23 states have abolished or overturned the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Among the 27 states that allow capital punishment, governors have issued moratoriums on the death penalty in four of them.
New Hampshire hasn’t executed anyone since 1939.
Kentucky
Lawsuit dismissed in funding dispute over kinship caregiver law
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit against Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration in a funding dispute that has delayed a kinship caregiver law, which aims to support adults willing to care for young relatives who endured suspected abuse or neglect at home.
The Democratic governor signed the legislation in 2024, and his administration has praised the measure for seeking to help children in bad situations be placed with relatives or close family friends. The dispute revolves around whether funding is accessible to carry out the state law’s intent — enabling relatives who take temporary custody of children to become eligible for foster care payments. Kinship caregivers are raising an estimated 55,000 children in Kentucky.
Beshear warned in 2024 that the state’s Republican-led legislature had not approved the necessary funding. More than a year later, he maintains those funds are still needed for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services to put the measure into action.
“It is simple: The state cannot implement programs and policies if we don’t have the funding needed to do so,” Beshear said in a news release Monday.
The two-term governor is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2028.
Republican state Auditor Allison Ball said she will continue her fight. She filed the lawsuit, claiming the law was in limbo because Beshear’s administration refused to put it into action.
The suit says Beshear’s administration is required to “do whatever it takes” to carry out state laws and asked a judge to “remind” them of that duty. It also sought access to information as part of the auditor’s investigation into the matter. That review is looking at whether it would cost about $19 million, as estimated by the administration, to carry out the law and whether the cabinet had funds to implement it.
In his decision Monday, Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate noted that no subpoenas had been sought, the cabinet had complied with many of the auditor’s requests, and the cabinet had indicated the auditor “need only provide a name and CHFS will set up an interview.”
“This indicates a willingness by CHFS to cooperate with the investigation, contrary to the auditor’s assertion that CHFS has no intention of cooperating with or participating in any further investigation,” Wingate said.
The judge added that the auditor “has not yet exhausted administrative means to obtain documents and the matter has not yet ripened into a concrete dispute.”
Responding to the ruling, Ball has directed the issuance of subpoenas as the “necessary next step” in the matter, her office said Monday in a news release. The judge’s ruling affirmed the auditor’s authority to subpoena officials and any withheld documents, the release says.
“These subpoenas will reveal the truth about the actual cost and all available resources to fund this program,” Ball said in the release.
The governor said he plans to include the necessary funding in his next budget proposal to lawmakers “so we can get these policies moving forward to help these children.” Lawmakers will begin their 2026 session in January, and passing the state’s next two-year budget will be their biggest task.
The 2024 law is meant to fix what child welfare advocates say is a flaw in the support system. It gives people considerably more time to apply to become foster parents for their young relatives, and thus eligible for foster care payments to help support the children already in their care.
South Carolina
Judge clears way for execution of South Carolina inmate who thinks most laws are unconstitutional
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A judge in South Carolina has ruled a death row inmate’s beliefs that most laws are unconstitutional and citizens have an absolute right to defend their property to the death are not proof he is mentally incompetent and should be executed.
The ruling clears the way for now for Steven Bixby to be put to death for the 2003 killings of two police officers who came to his family’s Abbeville home to discuss a dispute between them and a construction crew that had come to widen the road. Bixby’s lawyers can ask to appeal the ruling.
The state Supreme Court had stopped Bixby’s execution weeks before it could be scheduled and asked a lower court to decide if his beliefs about the legal system kept him from helping his lawyers as they appeal his death sentence.
Judge R. Scott Sprouse noted in his ruling, dated late last week, that Bixby cooperates with his lawyers and the psychiatrists treating and questioning him.
While Bixby “has often disagreed with counsel and expresses distrust regarding their strategy in this proceeding, the evidence demonstrates that he understands their role, the rationale for why they are engaging in this competency proceeding, and that he can choose whether or not to cooperate with them,” Sprouse wrote.
Bixby, 58, shot Abbeville County deputy Danny Wilson as the officer knocked on the front door of his parents’ home in December 2003, a day after they threatened the road crew, authorities said.
They dragged Wilson’s dying body inside and restrained him with his own handcuffs. Then they killed state Constable Donnie Ouzts as he and other officers rushed to the home after realizing Wilson had been missing for about an hour. That led to a 12-hour standoff as officers and the Bixbys fired hundreds of bullets at each other, investigators said.
Bixby’s parents were also charged with murder but died behind bars.
The judge held a hearing last month to determine if Bixby was competent. Both sides had experts testify. One called by Bixby’s lawyers said the isolation of prison has only made his beliefs worse and that Bixby is stuck in a mindset that never grew.
But the judge put more weight with the ones called by the state noting two of them have been dealing with Bixby since shortly after the killings and while Bixby has been angry with their testimony about his mental state before he understands they have a job to do.
Those experts testified Bixby isn’t going to give up his beliefs about the law and the Constitution and he is ready to die as a martyr if his appeals fail. They said Bixby thinks he will be reunited with his parents in heaven.
The psychiatrist who sees and treats death row inmates in South Carolina said Bixby summed up his mental state to him as “”I’m not crazy. I’m not a mental health case. I may be an (expletive), but I’m not crazy.”
After the hearing, Bibxy sent his own handwritten motion to the judge. He reiterated his long held belief that his family was justified killing Wilson because the deputy was trying to help take their land. He also suggested the judge would commit treason if he does not stop his execution and set him free.
“I am an innocent man!! Let freedom ring & let those committing treason swing!!!” Bixby wrote. “Like Thomas Jefferson: I am standing on principle even if I stand alone.”
