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Nation Briefs

By Wire Reports
Published: 11/4/2009 2:27 AM
Last Modified: 11/4/2009 4:35 AM

Body count creeps to 10 at home of sex offender

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Remains of four more people were unearthed from the backyard of a rapist's home Tuesday, raising to 10 the number of bodies found in and near the house.

Anthony Sowell, 50, a registered sex offender who lives in the home, was charged Tuesday with five counts of aggravated murder.

Police Chief Michael McGrath said in addition to the four more bodies, a skull was found in the basement.

Police discovered the first six bodies, all of women, Thursday and Friday after a woman reported that she was raped at Sowell's home. Investigators said they found one body in a shallow grave in the backyard. The rest were inside the house.

The Cuyahoga County coroner is attempting to identify the women through DNA and dental records. All six were black, and five were strangled.

Sowell was also charged Tuesday with rape, felonious assault and kidnapping related to the woman's complaint.

Three N. Dakota students discovered dead in pond

DICKINSON, N.D. — Police say three missing North Dakota college softball players have been found dead in their vehicle, which was pulled from a pond northwest of Dickinson.

Police Lt. Rod Banyai said Tuesday night that police are still investigating the cause of the deaths.

Authorities had been searching since Sunday night for Kyrstin Gemar, 22, of San Diego; Afton Williamson, 20, of Lake Elsinore, Calif.; and Ashley Neufeld, 21, of Brandon,

Manitoba.

The Dickinson State University students were said to be in a white 1997 Jeep Cherokee with California tags when they were last heard from in calls made to two friends on cell phones before the lines went dead.

Pilot of stolen plane that entered U.S. gets 2 years

ST. LOUIS — A Turkish-Canadian man was sentenced Tuesday to two years in federal prison for stealing a plane in Canada and flying over three states before landing along a dark southern Missouri highway.

Adam Dylan Leon, 31, might have received only 12 to 18 months. But U.S. District Judge Charles Shaw went beyond federal sentencing guidelines in deciding punishment.

Shaw said Leon's actions posed risks to himself and others, cost the government $230,000 to keep fighter jets in the air for seven hours tracking him and caused the evacuation of the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison.

Leon, who was born Yavuz Berke in Turkey before he moved to Canada, changed his name and became a naturalized citizen, admitted that he stole a four-seat Cessna 172 from his flight school April 6 and crossed the U.S. border. He landed the plane more than seven hours later on a road off of Missouri 60 near Ellsinore, Mo.

U.S. military aircraft intercepted the plane after it entered U.S. airspace and tried to establish contact with him.

Official quits after refusal to marry mixed-race pair

BATON ROUGE, La. — A justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned Tuesday.

Keith Bardwell, who is white, quit with a one-sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne and no explanation of his decision: "I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009."

Bardwell refused to perform the ceremony for Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay because they are of different races.

When questioned about his refusal, Bardwell acknowledged that he routinely recuses himself from marrying interracial couples because he believes such marriages cause harm to the couples' children. He said that he refers such couples to other justices of the peace, who then perform the ceremony, which happened in this case.

Humphrey has said she and McKay received a marriage license from the parish clerk of court, where they also received a list of people qualified to perform the ceremony. When she called Bardwell's office Oct. 6 to ask about the ceremony, Humphrey said Bardwell's wife told her that the justice wouldn't sign their marriage license because they were a "mixed couple."

Police arrest 2 accused of stealing airport luggage

PHOENIX — Two people suspected of stealing up to 1,000 pieces of luggage from baggage claim carousels at Phoenix's airport have been arrested by police who found heaps of the stolen bags strewn throughout their home.

There were so many suitcases that Phoenix police could only give a rough estimate of their number Tuesday as they pulled them out one by one and gathered them in the yard of Keith Wilson King and Stacy Lynne Legg-King's suburban home.

"A piece of luggage here, a piece of luggage there, I would imagine gets stolen out of airports all the time," Phoenix police Detective James Holmes said Tuesday. "This is a livelihood. There's a lot of luggage and there's a lot of victims."

King, 61, and Legg-King, 38, were arrested Monday. Each was booked into jail on charges of theft of property and possession of stolen property. Legg-King also was arrested on suspicion of tampering with evidence. It was not immediately clear how the two are related.

Both denied requests to be interviewed, and it was unclear whether they had attorneys.

Rhode Island again bans indoor prostitution

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Gov. Don Carcieri has signed legislation closing a loophole that made indoor prostitution legal and allowed more than 30 suspected brothels to operate around the state.

The bills signed Tuesday ends Rhode Island's status as the only state that allowed indoor prostitution statewide. The practice is legal in parts of Nevada. The new law takes effect immediately.

Carcieri praised the new law as a step forward and said it ended Rhode Island's "terrible" distinction.

State lawmakers inadvertently created the loophole in 1980 when they passed a law cracking down on prostitutes and their customers who operated in public. But the measure was silent on paid sex in private.

Woman, daughter display signs admitting thievery

BEDFORD, Pa. — In exchange for no jail time, a woman and her adult daughter have agreed to stand outside a Pennsylvania courthouse holding signs saying that they stole a gift card from a 9-year-old girl on her birthday.

Evelyn Border, 56, and Tina Griekspoor, 35, stood outside the court for 4

1/2

hours Tuesday. They held signs that read: "I stole from a 9-year-old girl on her birthday! Don't steal or this could happen to you!"

Because the women agreed to hold the signs, Bedford County District Attorney Bill Higgins said he would ask for probation instead of jail when they plead guilty to the theft.

Higgins said the two swiped a gift card that the girl set on a shelf while a Walmart employee helped her.

The girl's mother planned to drive her by the courthouse to teach her daughter the importance of obeying the law. By Wire Reports

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	Report Comment Few Clothes, America (11/4/2009 7:38:43 AM) My condolences to the families of the 3 softball players. Very sad.
	Report Comment Few Clothes, America (11/4/2009 7:40:54 AM) I still feel that Judge Keith Bardwell still had justification for making his decision.
	Report Comment Few Clothes, America (11/4/2009 7:42:04 AM) These two worthless women should have to stand there during Christmas season.
	Report Comment Few Clothes, America (11/4/2009 7:43:44 AM) The 10 murders should increase the watchfulness of all sex offenders. I hope the death penalty is legal in Ohio.

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