Another installment of the weekly article round-up:
CINCINNATI — A woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison for beating her 93-year-old neighbor with a vacuum cleaner during a robbery that netted her $5.
Police say 58-year-old Dora Nance was looking for money to buy drugs in May when she beat Florence Homes unconscious using a vacuum cleaner and a table leg, authorities said.
The midnight attack left Homes with a broken arm, broken bones in her face and several cuts, and she was forced to move into a nursing home. - Read the entire article here
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - A 45-year-old Springfield woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to beating an 80-year-old man in the head with a socket wrench and robbing him of $20 inside his home.
Assistant Sangamon County State's Attorney Jennifer Kuntz said Wednesday that Deborah Steinkuehler knocked on the mans door around 11 p.m. on December 12 and asked to use the phone. Because the knew Steinkuehler, he let her in. But when he turned his back, she struck him 10 to 15 times in the head with the wrench. The man required 65 staples to close his wounds. - Read the entire article here
GARNER, Iowa (AP) - A Ventura woman accused of trying to kill her 81-year-old mother with a frying plan has been sentenced to 40 years in prison. Valerie Hasbrouck pleaded guilty earlier this year to four counts of willful injury.
Authorities say the 47-year-old attacked her mother, Tressa Waddingham, on December 3rd at the mother's rural Ventura home in northern Iowa. - Read the entire article here
TOOELE - A Tooele mother who admitted killing a 14-month-old boy whom she and her husband adopted from Russia was sentenced Friday to prison for up to 15 years.
But during a diagnostic evaluation at the Utah State Prison, the woman admitted grabbing the child by an arm and a leg, slammed him to the floor, then repeating the action. - Read the entire article here
ALLENTOWN - A former teacher, described in court as someone who spent months trying to "brainwash" a student to make her a sexual tool, was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison today by a Northampton County judge who said it was the worst case of abuse she has seen.
The sentence against Keri Ann Brekne, 28, of Bethlehem came after the 15-year-old victim and her parents described Brekne as a cold, manipulative woman who used her position at a Warren County, N.J., middle school to win the girl's trust, ensnare her, isolate her and finally abuse her.
"In 20 years on the bench, I have not seen a case as heinous as this one," Judge Kimberly McFadden said in a courtroom packed by 85 supporters of the girl and her family and about 15 of Brekne. - Read the entire article here
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - The second of two women charged with plotting to steal a pregnant teenager's unborn child pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping and first-degree assault.
Alisa Betts, 18, of Atchison, Kan., entered the pleas in Jackson County Circuit Court, where prosecutors dismissed a third charge of felonious restraint.
Prosecutors said Betts and Gash met Amanda Howard, then 18 and pregnant, over the Internet in July 2007 and lured her from her home in Clinton, about 70 miles southeast of Kansas City.
The teen soon realized something was wrong and tried to use her cell phone. She was sprayed with some type of pepper spray and taken to a motel in the Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs, where she was bound and gagged with duct tape.
Officers went to the motel expecting to check on a distressed pregnant woman. They became suspicious when they saw the duct tape around Howard's neck and in her hair.
Also in the room were scissors, a sheet of plastic, a fishing tool, diapers, a blanket and a fake birth certificate. Stansell has said the room "basically was set up for surgery to take place." - Read the entire article here
OSHKOSH, Wis. - A Town of Menasha woman accused of throwing her baby has been sentenced to a year in prison for violating her probation in an unrelated case. Winnebago County Circuit Judge Thomas Gritton revoked 28-year-old Tanya Kasper's probation on a drug conviction Wednesday, two days after she was charged with second-degree recklessly causing injury for harming her daughter.
A criminal complaint says Kasper told police she threw her 4-month-old daughter into a chair Sept. 4 because the child kept fussing while she was getting ready for a job interview.
A police officer resuscitated the baby, who remains hospitalized. Doctors say she will have permanent mental and physical disabilities if she survives. - Read the entire article here
PORTLAND, Ore. - Sentencing was delayed Friday for two Portland nursing home workers who were found guilty of contributing to a patient's death.
Sentencing for the supervisor, Suzanne Ruddell, 59, was delayed because the woman's lawyer requested a pre-sentence investigation, but it is likely she will do some time in prison.
Ober was a patient at the Gateway Care and Rehab Center in northeast Portland when Nye was moving her and dropped her on the floor, breaking both her legs.
Ober wasn't taken to a hospital for five days, despite her cries for help. - Read the entire article here
PITTSBORO - A woman charged with beating two elderly women to death and seriously injuring another at a retirement community was sentenced Monday to spend the rest of her life in prison for the crimes.
Barbara Clark, 42, pleaded guilty in a plea agreement that allowed her to avoid the death penalty in the December 2007 fatal beatings of Mary Corcoran, 82, and Margaret Murta, 92. Authorities said Clark committed the killings after the women confronted her about stolen and forged checks. The women's neighbor, Rebecca Fisher, 77, also suffered injuries in the attack, but recovered. - Read the entire article here
RIDGELAND, SC - A Jasper County woman has been sentenced to eight years in prison for attacking her husband with pruning shears.
The Island Packet of Hilton Head reports that 40-year-old Eloise Simmons of Ridgeland was convicted this week of high and aggravated criminal domestic violence. It was her eighth domestic violence conviction.
Prosecutors said she stabbed her husband of 21 years just two days after being released from jail in August. His injury required six stitches. - Read the entire article here
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A former foster mom has been sentenced to prison for having sex with a boy in her family's care.
The 38-year-old woman, whose name is not being used in order to protect the boy's identity, on Wednesday was given 20-60 months in prison. - Read the entire article here
VAN BUREN - A Van Buren woman was found guilty of two counts of rape by a Crawford County jury Friday and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Lorri Gene Rye, 35, stood accused of rape for twice performing oral sex on a minor male relative (age 3).
Rye was arrested Oct. 19, 2007, after Helen Hawthorne, who was baby-sitting the child, reported that the child told her Rye put her mouth on his genitals.
Because of the victim’s age, the court and prosecution and defense agreed that he was not competent to testify, so jurors never heard from the victim. - Read the entire article here
CHINGFORD - A woman has been found guilty of repeatedly branding a three-year-old boy with a cigarette lighter. Tracey Parker, 23, of Otterbourne Road, Chingford, denied charges of child cruelty including assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and neglect, claiming she had passed out from smoking heroin at the time. - Read the entire article here
Sunday, October 12, 2008
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1 comment:
Please don't believe everything you read in the papers.
One of these people was convicted using circumstantial evidence only.
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