333 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(10/11/07 1:30am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A DNA test may determine if a missing Indianapolis woman was the victim of a man who has confessed to killing six women in four states.\nCarma Purpura, 31, was last seen July 11 at a south-side truck stop.\nBruce Mendenhall, 56, of Albion, Ill., was arrested the next day at a truck stop in Nashville, Tenn., and confessed to killing six women in Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, authorities said.\nDet. Tom Tudor of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said police found Purpura’s identification card in Mendenhall’s truck. Police hope a DNA test on blood on clothing found in his truck will determine if the blood is Purpura’s.\nMendenhall, who has been charged with killings in Nashville and Birmingham, Ala., reportedly told police he killed a woman he picked up at the Indianapolis truck stop and dumped her body in a trash bin near a fast food restaurant off Indiana State Road 37 just south of Interstate 465. Police searched that bin and others at nearby truck stops but found nothing.\n“At this point, we’re proceeding as if the body will not be recovered,” Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson said.
(10/09/07 4:01am)
FRANKLIN, Ind. – Jurors found a central Indiana school district was not responsible for the emotional distress a student newspaper article caused a student who recently had reported she was raped.\nHeide Inman, formerly Heide Peek, sought $800,000 in damages as a result of the 2002 article, which described her as having the worst reputation among Whiteland Community High School’s senior class and made a joking reference to rape and bestiality.\nA six-person Johnson Superior Court jury deliberated for about seven hours Friday before finding Clark-Pleasant Community School district officials were not responsible for the statements and awarding no money to Inman.\nInman’s attorney, Kevin Betz, said she was considering an appeal.\nThe lawsuit stemmed from statements in the 2002 senior edition of Smoke Signals, a student publication. Attorney James Stephenson, representing the district, said the faculty adviser removed the offensive remarks during editing, but the changes were not saved.\nBetz said the family had asked the principal and school officials to help shield the girl after the reported rape, and that the statements in print made it appear as if she had lied about the rape.\n“That’s what she gets from her school,” Betz said. “We know what those words meant to everyone in that high school setting and what it did to her emotional state.”\nThe publication was subject to review and oversight by school officials, the lawsuit alleged. Betz said officials were reckless for allowing the statements to be published.\nStephenson, however, argued that the adviser at the south suburban Indianapolis school made a mistake when she didn’t find the statements in a final edit, but that was not enough to prove recklessness.\n“Even though Heide Peek was wronged, we’re not here to award damages to wronged plaintiffs unless they prove their claims,” he said.\nStephenson also questioned whether the publication really added to the distress already caused by the rape, and whether it had done lasting damage to her reputation.\n“She could move into Whiteland now, and I doubt anyone would have a recall of this publication or know who she is,” he said.\nBetz said Inman has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder since the rape, but Stephenson said she had not sought counseling. Stephenson said if jurors held the school responsible they should award up to $50,000 to be used for five years of counseling
(10/09/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The family of a soldier who died in a medical transition program is raising questions about the care he received after he was wounded in Iraq.\n“I think the Army’s lack of care and lack of medical treatment killed my son,” Kay McMullen of Carmel, mother of 32-year-old Sgt. Gerald J. Cassidy, said Friday.\nCassidy was found in his room at Fort Knox in Kentucky and pronounced dead at about 6:50 p.m. Sept. 21., the military said. At the time of his death, Cassidy was in the Warrior Transition Program, an outpatient program that helps injured soldiers prepare to return to duty or be evaluated for disability. He was buried this week.\nFort Knox spokeswoman Connie Shaffery said Friday that Cassidy’s death is being investigated by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, which investigates all unattended deaths. Officials are awaiting lab results from a military autopsy, which could take several weeks, she said.\n“This is something that is serious to Fort Knox and to the Army,” Shaffery said. She said the well-being of soldiers in the Warrior Transition Unit was a particular concern.\n“Every aspect of his death is being investigated,” she added.\nMcMullen said the transition unit is not equipped to handle all the wounded soldiers it receives.\n“They have more patients and more wounded soldiers than they have the facilities and the doctors to take care of them,” she said.\nMcMullen said she had been trying to get her son transferred to an Indianapolis hospital where he could receive care she believed would be more adequate. Cassidy’s family said he had suffered migraine headaches and other symptoms after suffering a severe head injury from a roadside bomb in June 2006.\nAn independent autopsy found Cassidy could have been dead 15 hours before he was discovered, the family said, and they believe he may have been unconscious as long as two days. His wife had not had a phone call from him for three days when she called Fort Knox on Sept. 21 and pleaded with the Army to check on his condition, McMullen said.\n“She started calling the Fort early Friday morning begging for help. She said please, please find my husband,” McMullen said.\nShaffery said the days before Cassidy’s death also were being investigated.\nCassidy, of Westfield, was a member of the Lebanon-based Battery C of the 2-150th Field Artillery Battalion. He was deployed to Iraq with a brigade combat team from the Minnesota National Guard.
(10/09/07 3:32am)
Marion Jones has given up the five medals she won at the Sydney Olympics, days after admitting she used performance-enhancing drugs.\nIt wasn’t immediately clear where the medals are now. Jones’ lawyer, Henry DePippo, said Monday that she had relinquished them, but declined to say who had possession of them. The normal protocol would be for Jones to give them to the U.S. Olympic Committee, which then would return them to the International Olympic Committee, said International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies.\n“The IOC wants to move forward as quickly as possible in getting the facts and sorting out all the issues from the BALCO case,” Davies said.\nA call to the U.S. Olympic Committee was not immediately returned, but the group has scheduled a 7 p.m. EDT news conference. No one answered the door at Jones’ house in Austin, Texas.\nShe pleaded guilty Friday to lying to federal investigators about using steroids, saying she’d taken “the clear” from September 2000 to July 2001. “The clear” is the designer steroid that’s been linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the lab at the center of the steroids scandal in professional sports.\nIt wasn’t immediately clear what will happen next. The international committee and other sports bodies can go back eight years to strip medals and nullify results. In Jones’ case, that would include the 2000 Olympics, where she won gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 1,600 relay and bronze in the long jump and 400 relay.\nThe standings normally would be readjusted, with the second-place finisher moving up to gold, third to silver and fourth to bronze.\nPauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas was the silver medalist in the 200 meters and Tatiana Kotova of Russia was fourth in the long jump. The silver medalist in the 100 meters in Sydney was Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou – at the center of a major doping scandal at the Athens Olympics.\nShe and fellow Greek runner Kostas Kenteris failed to show up for drug tests on the eve of the games, claimed they were injured in a motorcycle accident and eventually pulled out. Both later were suspended for two years.\nThe relays could be a trickier issue, because there are more people involved. Jearl Miles-Clark, Monique Hennagan, Tasha Colander-Richardson and Andrea Anderson all won golds as part of the 1,600-meter relay. Jamaica finished second.\nChryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson were on the 400-meter relay, which finished third ahead of France.\nJones stands to lose more than her Olympic medals, too. The International Association of Athletics Federations can strip athletes of results and medals after notification of a doping violation, and it said last week it was waiting to hear from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Jones won a gold (100 meters) and bronze (long jump) at the 1999 worlds in Seville, Spain, and two gold (200 and 400 relay) and a silver (100) at the 2001 championships in Edmonton.\nThe federation’s rules also allow for athletes busted for doping to be asked to pay back prize money and appearance fees. British sprinter Dwain Chambers, who admitted to using the clear, had to pay back a reported $230,615 before he was allowed to return to competition after a two-year ban.\nIt’s unclear whether this would be applied to Jones, who would have earned millions in prizes, bonuses and fees from meets all over the world, including a share of the $1 million Golden League jackpot in 2001 and 2002.
(10/09/07 3:31am)
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Mark Dantonio expected growing pains in his first year as Michigan State’s head football coach. After back-to-back losses to Wisconsin and Northwestern, there’s little doubt that he’s smarting.\nThe Spartans (4-2, 0-2 Big Ten) know how close they came to an upset on Sept. 29, when they fell 37-34 at then No. 9 Wisconsin. And they have a right to feel upset with themselves after last weekend’s 48-41 overtime loss to visiting Northwestern.\nIt will take much better defense than that to stop the bleeding against explosive IU (5-1, 2-1) on Saturday. The Hoosiers’ record might be a surprise to some, but not to the MSU veterans who lost 46-21 last fall in Bloomington.\nDantonio insists his team won’t fold the way several recent squads did after an initial disappointment. And he should know the difference.\nDantonio was an assistant when Nick Saban’s 1999 Spartans started 6-0, were blown away by 54 points in consecutive thrashings at Purdue and Wisconsin, then finished 10-2 with four more victories, including a win over Florida in the Citrus Bowl.\n“If you’d said to me last spring, ‘You’re 4-2 after six games,’ you’d assume we weren’t playing that awful,” Dantonio said Monday. “The trouble is, the last two weeks were Big Ten games, and we had opportunities to win. But we don’t make the plays to get over the hump. We don’t make the calls to get over the hump. And we don’t coach to get over the hump.”\nThe Spartans’ challenge is to learn from a string of costly mistakes. For quarterback Brian Hoyer, that means a focus on the immediate future and forgetting about the past 10 days.\n“Watching that film yesterday made me sick,” Hoyer said. “And it was hard to sleep on Saturday night. I kept thinking about a couple of plays where I should’ve done something different.\n“But that’s something you can learn from and make the right play the next time.”\nThe play that kept Hoyer up was a rushed throw in overtime that barely missed wide-open tight end Kellen Davis for a tying touchdown. But Dantonio second-guessed himself, too, admitting that it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to give the ball to tailback Javon Ringer, who was averaging 15.4 yards per rush. Instead, Hoyer launched four incompletions toward the end zone.\n“We’re all growing, including myself,” Dantonio said. “We’re all trying to get to the point where we’re going to be successful. But this is a long-term project. As I said when I took the job, there are going to be times when we say to each other, ‘What happened? I wish this. I wish that.’ And there are going to be times when you don’t want to get out of bed on Sunday morning. This weekend was one of those days. But we can’t change what just happened.”
(10/03/07 4:06am)
FLOYDS KNOBS, Ind. – The number of people infected with E. coli in Floyd County, Ind., has jumped to 10, including seven schoolchildren who suffered kidney failure and required dialysis machines, health officials said Tuesday.\nAll of the people infected are linked to Gelena Elementary School, about 15 miles northwest of Louisville, Ky. Three of the cases are not students.\nBrian Rublein, spokesman for Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, said seven children were hospitalized for E. coli infections, but he said federal privacy laws prohibited him from identifying them or describing their conditions.\nA release Tuesday from county health officials also did not indicate progress toward identifying the source of the infection, but said officials were waiting on lab results for other suspected infections.\nEpidemiologists with the Indiana State Department of Health identified the strain responsible for infections in southeastern Indiana as 0157:H7, which produces a \npowerful toxin.\nAccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States has about 73,000 cases of E. coli infection and 61 deaths each year. Most cases are caused by eating \ncontaminated hamburger.\nGalena Elementary has remained open since the first infection Sept. 21, though officials say it has been cleaned regularly.\nDr. James Howell, an epidemiologist for the state, said Monday the Indiana State Department of Health saw no reason to close the school or quarantine the area.\n“It appears there is no ongoing transmission within the school,” he said.\nTom Harris, the county’s top medical officer, has defended the decision to keep Galena open and said there was no indication that E. coli was being transmitted at the school. Closing it “would not have been appropriate,” he said.\nTelephone messages were left Tuesday with Dave Rarick, spokesman for New Albany-Floyd County Schools.
(10/03/07 4:05am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A former lab technician faces a battery charge after she was accused of biting a 3-year-old boy’s shoulder during a blood test.\nAnne McGlorthon, 53, of Indianapolis, could face six months to three years in prison if she’s convicted. The charge was filed Tuesday, the Marion County prosecutor’s \noffice said.\nThe Associated Press left a phone message seeking comment Tuesday night at an Indianapolis number listed under McGlorthon’s name.\nThe boy’s mother, Faith Buntin, said she took her son Victor to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis on Sept. 21 because of recent recalls of toys involving lead. She said the worker later identified as McGlorthon put her mouth on Victor’s shoulder while restraining him so another lab worker could draw the blood. McGlorthon allegedly called it “just a play bite.”\nAfter they returned home, Buntin said she saw teeth marks on his left shoulder. Her husband then drove the child back to the hospital, where he was prescribed antibiotics.\nPolice said McGlorthon told them she bit the boy because he bit her as she restrained him.\nMarion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said self-defense was not a defense in this type of case.\n“A 3-year-old can’t have the requisite intent to harm you,” he told Indianapolis television station WRTV. “Therefore, you can’t defend yourself in that way.”\nBrizzi said he would ask the court to require McGlorthon to provide a blood sample so tests can be done to determine if she might have transmitted any disease to the child.\n“For someone to do something as nasty as put their mouth on a baby, bite a baby and break the skin and transfer bodily fluid into this child ... that’s a big concern for us,” James Buntin said. “We don’t want our baby to die.”\nA St. Vincent spokesman said McGlorthon was fired last week. She worked for a subcontractor for St. Vincent.\nBrizzi said McGlorthon was expected to surrender Tuesday or Wednesday. She was not in custody at Marion County Jail on Tuesday evening.
(10/02/07 4:17am)
NEW YORK – The New York Knicks signed rookie guard Text you want it to say Roderick Wilmont of Indiana to a free agent contract on Monday.\nThe 6-foot-4 Wilmont was the Hoosiers’ second-leading scorer and rebounder last season at 12.5 points and 5.8 boards a game. He also led Indiana with 70 3-point baskets in the regular season.\nWilmont was not selected in the NBA draft in June.
(10/02/07 4:04am)
FORT WAYNE – A Mexican national sentenced last month to life in prison for the abduction and slaying of a 10-year-old neighbor girl had four more life sentences added on Monday for killing his family. All five sentences are without the possibility of parole.\nSimon Rios, 35, pleaded guilty in August to four counts of murder and two counts of moving a body from the scene of a violent or suspicious death in the beating and strangulation death of his wife, Ana Casas-Rios, 28, and the strangling deaths of their three daughters, Liliana, 10, Katherinne, 4, and 20-month-old Thannya.\nThey were killed Dec. 13, 2005, in their Fort Wayne home.\nDuring an emotional sentencing hearing Monday in which Rios, defense attorney Michelle Kraus and Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards all shed tears, Superior Judge Fran Gull accepted the plea agreement that allowed Rios to avoid facing the death penalty.\nBefore agreeing to a plea, defense attorneys had been seeking to have Rios declared mentally retarded, which would have made him ineligible for the death penalty or a life sentence.\nHe pleaded guilty after a forensic psychologist testified that Rios was not mentally retarded and therefore competent to enter a plea.\nCasas-Rios’ family members, including her mother, traveled from Mexico to attend the hearing. They said they did not want to see Rios put to death. Marcos Casas, Rios’s brother-in-law, told the court that his family had forgiven Rios but was not sure God would.\nRios told Gull he came to the United States to fulfill his dreams, “but I allowed the forces of evil to take over and I’ll always regret it.”\nHe did not say why he had killed his family.
(10/02/07 4:03am)
Production workers at Honda Motor Corp.’s new factory will start at a lower hourly wage than their counterparts in Marysville, Ohio, but the car maker will pick up the tab for health insurance.\nHonda will pay $14.84 an hour and provide an annual performance bonus to workers starting at the $550 million factory under construction in southeastern Indiana.\nThe wage will gradually rise to $18.55 by 2009 and eventually pass $20 an hour as workers gain experience and the plant becomes established, Honda spokesman David Iida said.\nHonda received more than 30,000 online applications for production jobs at the plant. It expects to fill about 2,000 positions when the factory reaches full capacity.\nThe company will start conducting interviews in late November. Iida said some employees may be hired at the end of this year, but most will start in 2008.\nThe factory will produce 200,000 Civic sedans annually after it reaches full production. It is being built on 1,700 acres along Interstate 74 and is expected to open in fall 2008.\nHonda set the starting wage in Greensburg based on the product the factory makes and pay in the region, among other variables, Iida said.\nThe wage, which totals about $31,000 annually before taxes, trails top pay at other factories like the Toyota plant in Princeton or Honda’s Marysville, Ohio, location.\nNew Toyota workers start at $17.91 an hour. Hourly pay for the 4,800 workers there averages $25.98, according to company officials.\nWages at Honda’s Marysville plant start at $15.35 an hour and top out at $24.40 an hour, Iida said. He also noted the plant has been in operation for 25 years.\n“There are some small differences between each plant, it’s not a cookie-cutter approach,” he said.\nIida said he thinks Honda’s Greensburg pay package will be attractive to potential workers.\n“It will move up pretty quickly when you combine the wage with the performance bonus and the accompanying health care package,” he said.\nHonda will pay the entire premium for employee health insurance.\nThat bucks the current trend, said Andrea Cranfill, vice president of FlashPoint Human Resource Consulting in Indianapolis. She said employers are asking employees to pay more for insurance to control costs and make them more accountable “for their health care decisions.”
(10/02/07 4:01am)
State Senate Minority Leader Richard Young, the first Democrat to join the 2008 race for governor, dropped out on Monday.\nYoung, 64, said it would take at least $20 million to mount a successful race and he realized he could not raise that much. He also said that getting out would give the other two Democrats seeking the nomination — former U.S. Rep. Jill Long Thompson and Jim Schellinger, president of an Indianapolis architecture firm – more room to compete for the party’s nod.\nHe said both were outstanding candidates and hoped the party would coalesce behind one of them so a primary contest next May could be avoided.\n“It became clear to me that if we’re going to defeat (Gov.) Mitch Daniels, and that should be our ultimate goal, we needed cohesion within the party to make that possible,” said Young, a farmer from the southern Indiana city of Milltown.\nYoung got into the race in January by forming an exploratory committee, but said he had raised only about $200,000 and was not sure if his campaign was in the black. Schellinger got into the race in March, and as of June 30 had raised about $1.2 million and spent very little of that.\nLong Thompson joined in July, after the midyear campaign finance reporting deadline. Daniels ended the first six months of this year with $4.1 million.\nDaniels is widely expected to get the Republican nomination in his run for re-election. He is being challenged by retired Bedford firefighter La Ron Keith, whose only foray into politics was an unsuccessful run for a seat on the Lawrence County Council in the late 1990s.\nYoung said he got into the race because he wanted to improve the lives of all Hoosiers, “not just a small percentage.” He alluded to Daniels’ moves and proposals to outsource state assets and services and said they were shortsighted.\n“My campaign has always been about the politics of empowerment, one that is inclusive rather than exclusive,” he said. “The kind of politics that is considered and considerate, not the politics of power that is dictatorial, demanding and ultimately destructive.”\nYoung was first elected to the Senate in 1988 and has been minority leader for the past 10 years.\nA statewide WISH-TV Indiana poll released last month showed Long Thompson with 41 percent of support from 400 likely Democratic primary voters. Young was second with 16 percent, while Schellinger had 10 percent. The subgroup poll had a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.\nState Democratic Chairman Dan Parker, who attended Young’s announcement at the Statehouse, has long said that he hoped the party would support one candidate so a costly primary could be avoided. But he said it was not his role to try to talk Long Thompson or Schellinger into getting out of the race.\nHe said the governor’s race was really just beginning because many people are still focused on the upcoming November municipal races.\n“I think the Democrats are going to look forward to a vigorous campaign and we’ll see where we are at the end of the year,” he said.
(10/01/07 12:38am)
NEW YORK – Here’s something Madonna can really celebrate: a nomination to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.\nShe joins heartland rocker John Mellencamp, the puckish rappers the Beastie Boys and premier dance acts Donna Summer and Chic, among the nine nominees for the hall. The five who receive the most votes will be inducted during the annual ceremony March 10, 2008, at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel.\nThe other nominees are rap pioneer Afrika Bambaataa, songwriter Leonard Cohen, the original British Invasion combo The Dave Clark Five and surf-rock instrumentalists The Ventures.\nThe nominations illustrate how far the Hall of Fame has stretched its definition of rock ‘n’ roll to incorporate a variety of musical styles.\nIt’s certainly the case with Madonna, the Michigan native who burst out of New York dance clubs in the early 1980s with “Holiday” and soon became a pop culture icon. She scored 17 Top 10 hits in the 1980s alone and is due to put out an album next year, collaborating with the likes of Timbaland and Justin Timberlake.\nThe Beastie Boys molded punk rock and rap into the goofy hit “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right to Party.” They became critical favorites and are still together, having released an instrumental album earlier this year.\nIndiana’s own Mellencamp can fill a barrel with rock hits like “Hurts So Good,” “Pink Houses” and “R.O.C.K. in the USA.” Like Chic and the Dave Clark Five, he’s been nominated before without successfully being voted into the hall of fame.\nAbout 500 musicians, industry professionals and journalists vote on the nominees.
(09/30/07 8:14pm)
MARTINSVILLE – An attorney for the man convicted of killing Indiana University student Jill Behrman has filed an appeal arguing that jurors misbehaved and that pretrial publicity tainted the trial.\nThe 75-page brief in support of the appeal also questions whether the judge should have allowed damaging testimony from defendant John Myers II’s grandmother and a\nformer girlfriend. It also questions a forensic pathologist’s opinion that Behrman had been raped, even though there was no evidence of sexual assault.\nAttorney Patrick Baker filed for an appeal with the Indiana Court of Appeals on Sept. 21.\nThe appeal takes Morgan Superior Court Judge Christopher Burnham to task for not granting a change of venue from a community that Baker argued was bent on revenge after Behrman’s disappearance and slaying gripped south central Indiana.\n“From the day that John Myers was arrested for a crime which he did not commit, a public outcry for his conviction has steadily influenced an attitude of unfairness and bias against him,” the appeal said.\nMyers, 31, of Ellettsville, was convicted last year of killing Behrman. The 19-year-old IU freshman had vanished during a morning bike ride in Bloomington in May 2000, and her fate remained a mystery until her remains were found in a remote Morgan County field in April 2003.\nBaker, in his brief, argued the public was influenced “by the media hysteria, which memorialized Ms. Behrman, while demonizing and displaying Mr. Myers as an evil person.” He said the trial should have been moved to a county far from Morgan County.\nMyers’ former girlfriend testified at the trial that he took her to the spot where Behrman’s body was later found. The grandmother testified Myers told her he had done a very bad thing that could send him to jail for life.\nThe jurors’ conduct during the trial included racing in women’s high-heel shoes down a hotel hallway and having alcoholic drinks nightly at dinner.\n“Is this the type of conduct expected from grown adults involved in such an important case, deciding a man’s liberty?” Baker asked.\nThe state has 30 days to respond to Baker’s petition. Then, members of the Indiana Court of Appeals will consider the case and issue a ruling. If they agree with Baker, Myers’ conviction could be set aside and a new trial ordered. If the appeals court denies Baker’s petition, he can seek a reversal from the Indiana Supreme Court.\nMyers is serving a 65-year sentence.
(09/28/07 3:08am)
GARY – Police radio recordings show that officers had been told that two teenage passengers were missing from a car crash even though officials have said that fact was unclear before family members found their bodies hours later in nearby brush.\nThe Sept. 15 crash injured two teenagers and killed Brandon Smith and Dominique Green, both 18. The injured teens were taken to the hospital, but the whereabouts of Smith and Green were presumably unknown until Smith’s father went to the crash site and found their bodies.\nDispatch recordings obtained from the Gary Police Department by the Merrillville Post-Tribune show that officers were told that Smith and Green were in the car when it crashed.\n“He says he had two other guys with him,” an unidentified officer said on the recording at about 1:45 a.m. “They might still be in the car. You might want to check.”\nAnother officer responded: “Yeah, I’m headed there right now.”\nThe recording has an exchange between officers a few minutes later:\n“He said if they’re not in the car, then they had to have gotten out on their own and walked off,” one said.\n“If you’ve seen the vehicle, I don’t know how anyone would have walked off,” another responded.\nA 911 call at about 9 a.m. reported that the bodies of Smith and Green were found after Smith’s father went to the scene. Wails from the victims’ families can be heard over the police radio as officers call for assistance.\nGary police Cmdr. Sam Roberts, a department spokesman, said last week that officers searched the site, but that the survivors told officers they might have dropped off their two friends earlier. Roberts declined to comment Wednesday on the dispatch recording or the investigation into how officers handled the scene.\nPolice have said the driver Darius Moore and passenger DeAndre Anderson, 17, had alcohol in their systems at the time of the crash.\nThe Lake County coroner’s office has said Smith and Green died instantly, but the families have sought independent autopsies.
(09/28/07 3:07am)
BROWNSTOWN, Ind. – Attorneys for a Muncie-area teenager accused of killing a truck passenger in a sniper shooting from an Interstate 65 bridge said key evidence against him should be thrown out because investigators obtained it illegally.\nZachariah Blanton’s attorneys told Jackson Circuit Judge William Vance that his confession and a .270-caliber Remington rifle seized from his home should be ruled inadmissible at his trial, scheduled to begin Oct. 31.\nBlanton, 18, of Gaston, Ind. faces charges of murder, attempted murder and criminal recklessness. He’s accused of shooting at traffic from the bridge near Seymour on July 23, 2006, fatally wounding Jerry Ross, 40, of New Albany as he rode in a truck.\nThe rifle found at Blanton’s home matched bullet fragments pulled from vehicles shot along I-65 about 60 miles south of Indianapolis and on I-69 near Muncie a few hours later. Investigators said Blanton’s confession to the I-65 gunfire came as they questioned him in connection with the I-69 shootings.\nDefense attorney Alan Wilson told Vance during a hearing Wednesday that there was “absolutely no probable cause to arrest Zach Blanton” in connection with the I-69 shootings.\nState police Detective Daryl Thornburg testified a man who had been hunting with the Blanton family in southern Indiana reported the teen, armed with a .270 Remington rifle, had left the hunting party in anger. He said Blanton told him that he took a route home to Gaston that put him in the area at the time of the shootings.\nWilson and co-counsel Bruce Mactavish argued that was not enough probable cause for an arrest. They also said the rifle was seized from the Blanton home without a search warrant and that Blanton was arrested without a warrant.\nJackson County Prosecutor Richard Poynter countered that Blanton’s grandparents, with whom he lived, consented to the search that turned up the rifle and to the questioning of the youth, who was then 17.\nBlanton’s grandmother, Patricia Blanton, testified that police officers told her and her husband that they just wanted to see the rifle and never said they were going to take it.\n“I asked them, ‘Where are you going with that?’” she said. “And he told me, ‘To the lab.’ I said, ‘You lied to us.’”\nThornburg, though, testified that he and other investigators were clear with the Blantons about the reason for the search.\n“We told them we were there to look for the rifle and asked for permission to look for the rifle,” Thornburg said. “She gave us permission to take the rifle.”\nVance gave both sides until Oct. 9 to submit written arguments before he rules on the evidence.
(09/28/07 2:23am)
SAN MARCOS, Calif. – A 10-year-old boy will get a chance to be an extra in Will Ferrell’s new movie after his father bought the role in a cancer-charity auction for more than $47,000.\nThe money will go to the Cancer for College foundation run by a fraternity brother of Ferrell’s at the University of Southern California. The $47,100 high-bidder, a man from Dallas, asked to remain anonymous. The opening bid was $5,000.\n“Winning this auction means a lot to me on a very personal basis,” the winner said in a statement released by the foundation. “I lost my mother to ovarian cancer a few years ago, so I feel fortunate that my 10-year-old and I are able to participate in an event involving Cancer for College and Will Ferrell.”\nFerrell came up with the idea to auction off a non-speaking part as an extra in his new movie, “Step Brothers.”\n“We are overwhelmed with the response and generosity to the auction,” Ferrell said. “This money will help so many young people with their dreams of attending college.”\nThe winner is scheduled to meet Ferrell on Friday at the 14th annual Cancer for College golf tournament dinner in Temecula, Calif., then join the actor on the movie set next month.\nFerrell’s friend Craig Pollard, a two-time survivor of Hodgkin’s disease, started Cancer for College to provide scholarships to current and former cancer patients. The charity has awarded $200,000 to 50 cancer survivors since 1993.
(09/27/07 4:18am)
Don’t get him wrong. Prince Fielder is plenty pleased with becoming the youngest player to hit 50 homers in a season.\nBut he really wants to hit 52 – especially if it helps Milwaukee reach the playoffs.\nFielder connected twice Tuesday night to help the Brewers beat St. Louis 9-1, bringing Milwaukee within two games of the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. It also allowed the typically jovial slugger to surpass Willie Mays as the youngest to reach that single-season milestone.\nBut Fielder was serious when he talked about hitting two more. His estranged father, former major leaguer Cecil Fielder, hit 51 home runs with Detroit in 1990 – and surpassing that total would be especially sweet.\n“That’s why I’m so passionate about playing,” the younger Fielder said. “Hopefully one day, whenever they mention my name, they won’t have to mention his.”\nFielder hit a two-run homer to right field in the first inning and a two-run shot to left in the seventh, giving him 50 at 23 years, 139 days old. Mays was 24 years, 137 days old when he hit his 50th in 1955, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.\n“It was a great thrill,” said Brewers manager Ned Yost, who this week was given a vote of confidence by team owner Mark Attanasio. “I told the boys, ‘We’re watching a little history here. Remember it.’”\nFielder’s feats overshadowed the fact that Milwaukee drew ever closer to the Cubs, who were hamstrung by Dontrelle Willis and lost 4-2 at Florida.\n“We’re in the middle of a pennant race right now, and that’s all I care about,” Yost said.\nPrince Fielder is guarded about the reasons behind the split with his father. According to a 2004 story by The Detroit News, Cecil Fielder frittered away his baseball earnings through gambling and bad business decisions.\nCecil has been more outspoken. At a Toronto Blue Jays alumni event in June, he said his son should show him more respect.\n“I just don’t think my son knows how to let it go,” Cecil Fielder said. “I don’t think he’s grown up yet. Until he can move on and talk to me like he’s my son, we don’t need to talk.”\nFielder said he wasn’t offended by any one particular comment from his father, but made it clear that he has been paying attention to what he says in public.\n“You’ve got to look at who’s saying it,” Prince Fielder said. “Let’s be honest, he’s not really the brightest guy.”\nNevertheless, the Fielders became the first father-son tandem to reach the 50-homer mark.\n“It’s just an awesome feat,” Prince Fielder said of No. 50. “Now my kids can know at one time, their dad was pretty good.”\nBraden Looper (12-12) served up Fielder’s first home run and gave up homers to Bill Hall and Rickie Weeks.\nMilwaukee starter Jeff Suppan (11-12) worked eight innings to beat his former team for the third time this year, scattering nine hits and three walks but allowing just one run.
(09/25/07 2:30am)
GOSHEN, Ind. – An Elkhart woman who pleaded guilty to strangling her four young children was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole in each child’s death.\nAngelica Alvarez, 27, told Elkhart Circuit Judge Terry Shewmaker she repented for what she had done and accepted responsibility for the murders of Jennifer Lopez, 8, Gonzalo Lopez, 6, Daniel Valdez, 4, and Jessica Valdez, 2, on Nov. 14, 2006.\nAlvarez pleaded guilty to four counts of murder on Sept. 4, in return for Prosecutor Curtis Hill Jr. agreeing not to seek the death penalty.\nShe described during a court hearing that day how she took the children to the basement of her home in Elkhart, about 15 miles east of South Bend, and gave them sleeping pills before strangling them with her hands. She then tried to hang herself with an electrical cord from a lamp. When that didn’t work, Alvarez said, she took sleeping pills, leaving a note saying the children would be better off in heaven.\nProsecutors challenged her account in court Monday, saying toxicology reports indicated the children had not been given sleeping pills. They also said a cord mark was on at least one child’s neck.\nThe father of the two older children, Gonzalo Lopez, spoke at the sentencing hearing and said he’s found peace with God and doesn’t hate Alvarez.\nOutside the courtroom, he said through a translator that the deaths of his children hit him hard.\n“We’re moving forward little by little on a very hard road because it’s not easy,” he said.\nAlvarez entered the guilty plea after Shewmaker found her competent to stand trial.
(09/24/07 3:24am)
EVANSVILLE, Ind.– A choir director who allegedly began a sexual relationship with a female church member when she was 14 faced two felony counts of sexual misconduct with a minor.\nNathan St. Pierre, 25, was being held Saturday night in the Vanderburgh County Jail in Evansville on a $25,000 cash bond. He was due to be arraigned Monday.\nSt. Pierre was choir director at Evansville’s Washington Avenue Baptist Church when the relationship with the girl, then 14, began in early May and ended earlier this month, police said.\nThe problem came to light when the girl’s mother found a diary detailing the relationship and brought it to the church’s pastor, the Rev. Mike Bebout, who is St. Pierre’s father-in-law.\nBebout, who became pastor two years ago, said he knew nothing about the affair and said the church should not be held responsible for allegations of wrongdoing against one employee.\nSt. Pierre has submitted a letter of resignation, Bebout said, “but he was dismissed already last week.’’\n“I in no way tried to cover up this thing or tried to protect my son-in-law,’’ Bebout said.\nThe police affidavit said the girl told investigators she and St. Pierre had sexual intercourse 15 to 20 times and other sexual relations at least six times.
(09/24/07 3:23am)
INDIANAPOLIS – This summer’s dry, hot weather may mean a shorter and earlier season for watching autumn leaves turn red, orange and yellow.\nLeaves typically begin developing fall colors near the beginning of October, but this year the change could come earlier.\n“We’re already starting to see the trees brown out; that’s because of the stress,” said Sam Carman, education director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry. “In dry conditions, the colors tend to be more vibrant, but they don’t last as long.”\nBetween April and mid-September, central Indiana recorded 14 inches of rain, more than 8 inches below typical amounts, according to the National Weather Service. That makes it the driest spring and summer since 1988.\nGreen chlorophyll that generates a tree’s food during the growing season typically masks the other colors in a tree’s leaves. But the chlorophyll fades and other colors emerge as temperatures drop and days grow shorter. Sugars generated by trees help produce the colors seen in the leaves, and if drought conditions cause a tree to store less, fall leaves may appear more muted.\n“We all think it’s not going to be as showy a fall color season because of the drought,” said Tom Thake, a forest ecologist for the Hoosier National Forest in Southern Indiana. “It’s still going to be gorgeous.”\nSugar maple leaves often turn brilliant red and orange, while tulip trees and redbuds turn yellow. Traffic already has started to increase in Brown County, a popular spot for leaf watchers.\n“October is the peak season, and years back it was the only season, but we see more traffic year-round,” said Jane Ellis, interim director of the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “People just make their fall vacation plans regardless.”
