Crimes and Trials News

TOKYO (Reuters) - A U.S. court martial sentenced a Marine to four years in prison on Friday for sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl on the southern island of Okinawa, in a case that has sparked widespread public anger.

NEW YORK - Prosecutors say a New York landlord who tried to kill a tenant with a bomb has been indicted on attempted murder and other charges. The tenant lost a leg in the blast.

CLEVELAND - A jury convicted a city firefighter Thursday of fatally shooting three people and wounding two others during a late-night Fourth of July celebration, rejecting defense claims that he was angered by the noise and snapped.

LOS ANGELES - The nine-week trial of Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano often had seamy plot lines and suspense worthy of a movie: death threats, offers of murder and extramarital affairs.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Anthony Pellicano, known as Hollywood's private eye to the stars, was convicted on Thursday of running a vast criminal enterprise involving wiretapping and bribery to fix the problems of his wealthy clients.

CLEVELAND - A man who wrote hundreds of hateful letters to black and mixed race men seen with white women apparently was motivated by a girlfriend who left him for a black man, the FBI said Friday.

NEW ORLEANS - Federal law gives MySpace.com immunity from a lawsuit over the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl by a man she met on the social networking Web site, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

RALEIGH, N.C. - An ailing 81-year-old North Carolina man who escaped from a Maryland prison 43 years ago was taken into custody Friday to face extradition, a move his attorneys decried as a waste of time because he is ill and aging.

LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles County grand jury has indicted the former head of UCLA's cadaver program on eight felony counts for allegedly trafficking in parts of bodies donated to the university.

PHOENIX - DMX has pleaded not guilty to felony drug possession and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges.

MIAMI (Reuters) - One of five defendants charged with the death of Washington Redskins NFL footballer Sean Taylor faces a 29-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to second degree murder and armed burglary.

MESA, Ariz. - Police say a 38-year-old man has been charged with multiple murder and sexual assault counts after DNA evidence connected him to attacks against four women.

ATLANTA - The judge presiding over the murder trial of the man accused of opening fire in an Atlanta courthouse can stay on the case.

LOS ANGELES - A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a MySpace online hoax on a 13-year-old neighbor girl who committed suicide.

SALT LAKE CITY - A book and promotional tour by a woman who helped convict polygamist leader Warren Jeffs could taint the jury pool in a rape case against her cousin and former husband, the husband's attorney said.

DALLAS - An HIV-positive man convicted of spitting into the eye and mouth of a Dallas police officer has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi's High Court delayed on Thursday its ruling on whether U.S. pop diva Madonna may adopt a two-year-old Malawian boy, to allow it to review a new human rights report which says the move would be illegal.

LILONGWE (AFP) - A court in Malawi will not deliver its ruling on whether Madonna can permanently adopt a three-year-old boy from one of Africa's poorest countries until next week, the star's lawyer said Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Chuck Jackson has lived his entire life the same way four generations of his family have before him: with a death sentence from Alzheimer's disease hanging over his head.

NEW YORK - A woman accused of booking clients for a high-priced call girl ring pleaded guilty Wednesday to money laundering and promoting prostitution in the federal probe that brought down former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks, is tentatively due to appear before a U.S. war court judge at Guantanamo Bay for the first time on June 5, a military official said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A booking agent at a prostitution ring that counted former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer among its clients pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiracy relating to prostitution and money laundering.

RICHMOND, Va. - Attorneys for death row inmates in Virginia and Delaware argued Wednesday that their states' lethal injection procedures need changing despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the most widely used method of execution.

MIAMI - Fourteen warlords from far-right paramilitary militias suspected in Colombia of thousands of atrocities began court appearances Wednesday around the United States on drug trafficking charges.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. - A man punched a sheriff's deputy and tried to grab the officer's handgun from its holster after a judge convicted him of murdering his wife and son.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Camp Pendleton's commanding general has ordered a Marine to be tried on a murder charge in the killing of an unarmed detainee in Fallujah, Iraq.

BOSTON (Reuters) - It was just after 10 p.m. when William Cotter, wearing a belt full of ammunition, burst into the home of his estranged wife, Dorothy, shooting her in the back with a sawed-off shot gun before taking his own life.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Federal prosecutors have filed 15 felony charges against US baseball all-time home run king Barry Bonds in a new indictment featuring 14 perjury counts and one of obstructing justice.

CHICAGO - Jurors began deliberations Tuesday in the corruption trial of political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, accused of crimes a prosecutor says involved "the highest levels of power."