Around The State

Indiana guardsman charged with killing Iraqi police officer\nEVANSVILLE, Ind. -- An Indiana National Guardsman faces a possible court-martial on charges he killed an Iraqi police officer and then shot himself, the Army said Wednesday.\nCpl. Dustin Berg, 21, of Ferdinand, Ind., who received a Purple Heart for actions related to the shooting, has been charged with murder.\nBerg also faces charges of false swearing and the wearing of an unauthorized award for lying about the incident, said Connie Shafferty, a spokeswoman at Fort Knox, Ky.\nA hearing was scheduled Thursday at Fort Knox, Ky., to determine whether the case will proceed to a court-martial.\n"He was on patrol and a member of the Iraqi police force was also on patrol and that's who was killed," Shafferty said.\nShafferty said investigators did not believe that Berg was attempting suicide when he shot himself. The hearing on Thursday will examine, in part, whether Berg accidentally shot himself, she said.\nThe Iraqi died in November 2003 near Nippur, south of Baghdad, said Gini Sinclair, another public affairs officer at Fort Knox.\nBerg's mother was quoted in The Herald newspaper of Jasper, Ind., on Nov. 24, 2003, as saying her son had been shot the day before in the abdomen and had undergone minor surgery.\nReached at her home Tuesday by The Associated Press, Mary Lee Berg would not comment, saying only that her son had returned to duty in Iraq after the shooting.\nBerg received a Purple Heart during a ceremony Feb. 19, 2004, at Camp Atterbury in Indiana. The Indiana National Guard on Wednesday would not release the citation describing why the Purple Heart was awarded.\nMan sentenced to 20 years for drug-related robbery\nCROWN POINT, Ind. -- A man present when three adults and a 23-month-old boy were fatally shot during a drug-related robbery was sentenced to 20 years in prison for robbery.\nLenzo Aaron III, 24, of Gary, pleaded guilty last year to four counts of robbery under a plea deal in which he agreed to testify against two others and prosecutors agreed to drop the murder charges against him.\nAaron, who was sentenced on Tuesday, could have been given a term of up to 50 years in prison.\nLast week, James W. Parks, 21, of Gary was found guilty of four counts of murder. He faces a maximum 260 years in prison for the January 2004 deaths of Jimmy Jones, 45; Laurice Jones, 47; their nephew, Anthony McClendon Sr., 24; and McClendon's son, 23-month-old Anthony Jr., at the Jones' apartment in Gary.\nParks is scheduled to be sentenced March 24 by Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak.\nAntonio Jones, 30, who is not related to the victims, was convicted in the four slayings last year and is serving a 240-year sentence.\nAuthorities say the murders took place after when the men heard McClendon was carrying a large amount of cash. Investigators reported finding at least 25 shell casings from three weapons inside the apartment, along with $8,000 in cash and crack cocaine cooking on the stove.\nDaniels signs economic development agency bill\nINDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels signed one of his first bills into law Wednesday, turning over the state's economic development efforts to a quasi-governmental group.\nThe bill eliminates the state's Department of Commerce and hands economic-development decisions to the 12-member Indiana Economic Development Corp. that would include private business leaders.\nDaniels will be chairman of the group and said he hoped to appoint the 11 other members by Monday.\nDaniels praised the General Assembly for moving the bill through the legislative process in little over a month.\n"When the interests of Indiana workers are at stake, they can move quickly and efficiently," Daniels said. "It was a bipartisan effort."\nThe House passed the bill on a 86-6 vote and the Senate passed it 46-3. Leaders from the House and Senate joined Daniels as he signed the bill into law Wednesday in his Statehouse office.\nParts of the new law would have taken effect on July 1 as part of legislation passed in 2003. But Daniels wanted the timetable moved up, saying it would give a jump-start toward reviving the state's economy.\nDaniels said the new economic development corporation would be able to award incentive packages more quickly than the Department of Commerce and would be more efficient and flexible as it tries to attract new business and expand existing businesses.\nHe said the new body was patterned after successful public-private partnerships adopted by some states.