South Bend man sentenced to 175 years for group attack on woman\nSOUTH BEND -- A man was sentenced to 175 years in prison for his role in a group attack on a woman who was repeatedly raped, then shot by another man and left in a park wounded with a bullet in her head.\nJudge Roland W. Chamblee sentenced Terrease Nesbitt, 22, to 20 years each for rape and criminal deviate conduct, and to 50 years for the attempted murder of the woman.\nAlso, Nesbitt was sentenced Tuesday to 55 years for killing one of his accomplices, and to 30 years for trying to kill another man who was there during the crime.\nNesbitt, of South Bend, said he would appeal the sentence.\nThe 20-year-old victim testified that because of an order Nesbitt gave, Antoine Pettrie, shot her with the intent of killing her. She said she still has a bullet in her head, diminished hearing and emotional scars.\nThe South Bend woman said she accepted a ride last April with Nesbitt, Pettrie, Sylvester Dingle and Aaron Johnson after leaving a friend's home.\nIn a trial, witnesses testified that the multiple sexual assaults were initiated by Nesbitt, then the other men took turns raping her.\nThe episode ended with the fatal shooting of Dingle, 23, and the wounding of both the woman and Johnson, 25. Nesbitt continued to maintain throughout the trial that he was innocent and the sexual acts were consented to by the victim.\nLast month, Chamblee sentenced Pettrie, 19, to 90 years in prison. Pettrie pleaded guilty to charges of rape, criminal deviate conduct and attempted murder, and testified for the prosecution the trials of Nesbitt and Johnson.\nSearch of drug-filled diaper raises constitutional questions\nEVANSVILLE -- A father fighting drug charges is challenging a state trooper's decision to change his son's apparently soiled diaper -- an action that instead revealed a bag of crack cocaine stuffed inside.\nThe father contends the diaper change and a search of a car that preceded it were conducted without probable cause, violating his Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure, a court document said.\nThe five ounces of cocaine, which authorities estimated to be worth $140,000 on the street, and some marijuana found during the search, should be inadmissable as evidence, the father's attorney contended in a motion filed last week.\nU.S. District Judge Richard Young is expected to issue a ruling on the motion as the case against Walter H. Martin goes to trial next week.\nTrooper Douglas Humphrey discovered the drugs last June after stopping the rental car Martin was driving for speeding on U.S. 41 in Gibson County, north of Evansville, court documents say.\nMartin, 30, of Vincennes, was in the car with his 32-year-old wife, Tawana Fairley, and two children, aged 8 years and 18 months.\nHumphrey found out Martin was a suspect in a drug investigation. A search by a drug-detection dog led Fairley to admit she had two small bags of marijuana in her socks, court documents said. Police said they also found a loaded revolver.\nAccording to court records, when Humphrey lifted the 18-month-old up from the car, he noticed "a large load" in the baby's diaper. The trooper then found the cocaine inside.\nProsecutors later filed drug charges against Martin and Fairley, including a charge of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.\nFairley pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in the fall.\nMartin's attorney, John Goodridge, filed the motion to suppress the diaper evidence, Fairley's testimony and any other evidence gathered after the traffic stop.
CROWN POINT, Ind. -- A Gary police internal affairs officer was charged with manslaughter in the death of the police chief's secretary, who died after she and the officer had sex in a police station.\nA Lake Criminal Court magistrate entered a plea of innocent Tuesday on behalf of Frederic McKinney, 50, a 22-year veteran of the department. If convicted in the death of 32-year-old Michelle Avery, McKinney could face two to eight years in prison.\nAvery, who had been Gary Police Chief Garnett Watson's secretary since March, was found dead in her home on Jul. 9, a few hours after police said McKinney delivered the unconscious woman to her teenage son.\nLake County Coroner David Pastrick ruled that Avery died of brain damage from blunt force trauma and respiratory failure.\nDiane Poulton, a spokeswoman for the Lake County prosecutor's office, said it took authorities several months to file charges in the case because they were awaiting the results of additional medical and autopsy tests.\nAccording to a probable cause affidavit filed by police, McKinney initially told investigators Avery lost consciousness after they had sex in his office on the night of Jul. 8 and he had been unable to revive her. He later said she hit her head on the edge of his desk when he tried to help her stand up.\nMcKinney told investigators he had been having an affair with Avery off and on for about 10 years, often meeting at his office.\nChief Watson sought to have McKinney, who is on paid administrative leave, dismissed from the force after Avery's death.\nMcKinney has not returned to work since Avery's death. He was recently hospitalized after suffering an apparent stroke.\nHAMMOND, Ind. -- A federal judge sentenced a man to 25 years in prison for running a resort in Mexico that catered to American pedophiles.\nTimothy Joe Julian, 49, formerly of Dyer, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court on charges of conspiring to engage in foreign commerce to have sex with children under the age of 18, and helping transport a Mexican teenager into the United States for immoral purposes.\nThe charges resulted from a four-year investigation by U.S. Customs officials that began after a man told authorities he had sex with three teenage boys during a week at Julian's Castillo Vista Del Mar in 1998.\nFederal authorities alleged Julian -- who was convicted in 1988 of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old Indiana boy -- and another man opened the resort in an Acapulco mansion as a safe haven for people who paid up to $1,000 a week to have sex with Mexican children and teenagers. They then promoted the resort on the Internet.\nJulian made no statement during the hearing Tuesday in federal court in Hammond. He has said he was not aware that his partner was running a sex business.\nCustoms officials believe the Castillo Vista Del Mar shut down in mid-1999.
