McClatchy | Crime and Justice Headlines

Crime & Justice

• Roeder admits to killing abortion doctor Tiller

  Scott Roeder confessed Monday to killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller, saying he had no regrets because "preborn children were in imminent danger." Roeder, 51, said that he didn't consider what he did to be murder and that he had no intention of changing his plea to guilty. "There is a distinction between killing and murdering," he said. "I don't like the accusation of murder whatsoever, because when you protect innocent life, that's not murder."

• Idaho prosecutor pleads guilty to stalking his ex, quits RNC

  After pleading guilty to stalking a former girlfriend, Blake Hall, a leading figure in Idaho and national politics for 25 years, was fired Monday as a deputy prosecuting attorney in eastern Idaho and resigned from the Republican National Committee.

• Marriage to a 14-year-old in Missouri leads to charge of statutory rape

  Vincent Mosby signed a marriage contract and paid a dowry in a religious ceremony in August, police said. Mosby, 23, didn't legally wed his 14-year-old bride, however, because Missouri law won't allow it without a judge's order. Police said she was pressured into the union because her mother and stepfather thought she was going to be sexually active with a boy her age.

• More evidence that Fort Hood gunman held radical beliefs

  Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings, once regularly attended a Falls Church, Va., mosque that the FBI has linked to two of the 9/11 hijackers, but the congregation's current spiritual leader Sunday insisted the government's claims of connections are wrong.

• $29,000 for 5 minutes in the ER raises health care questions

  For five desperate minutes, emergency room doctors at UC Davis Medical Center frantically tried to revive Scott Hawkins. In those five minutes, the 23-year-old student was hooked up to life support monitors, air pumped into his weakened lungs as he bled on a gurney.

• Kansas justice warns funds shortfall will force court cutbacks

  State courts in Kansas will have to close their doors for one week each month beginning in February if the Legislature doesn't restore $8 million to the judiciary budget. The courts would close and place staff on involuntary unpaid leave the weeks of Feb. 15, March 15, April 5, May 10 and 24, and June 7, Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Davis said in a letter to court employees.

• Experts: Teen who killed 4-year-old likely abuse victim too

  When Raul Renato Castro was a baby, his father was convicted of molesting a 5-year-old relative and was sentenced to prison. Now, 14-year-old Castro is accused of molesting 4-year-old Alex Christopher Mercado and drowning the child in a bathtub on Oct. 30. Researchers say the circumstances don't surprise them.

• Military releases names of dead in Fort Hood massacre

  Twelve of the dead were members of the military. One was a civilian.The alleged gunman, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, remains in critical condition and has not regained conciousness, base officials said. A memorial service has been scheduled for Tuesday at Fort Hood. The White House announced that President Barack Obama would attend.

• Police: College student beat roommate to death with bat

  Quran Mahammed Jones allegedly beat Scott Hawkins to death in their dorm suite before he was shot by police officers responding to a report of a disturbance. Court documents say that when police arrived they faced Jones in the common area of the suite with a "crazed look in his eyes." Jones remained hospitalized but has been charged with murder and assault.

• Kansas couple charged with poisoning restaurant's salsa

  On Thursday, federal prosecutors accused former Mi Ranchito restaurant employees Arnoldo Bazan and his wife, Yini De La Torre - niece of the restaurant co-founder - of mixing the pesticide into salsa Aug. 30 and sending at least a dozen people to the hospital.

• Fort Hood medical staff never expected bloodshed at home

  Many of the doctors who cared for the wounded from Thursday's rampage had seen similar wounds during rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan. But few were prepared for the grim and chaotic scene that unfolded as ambulance after ambulance began ferrying gunshot victims to the hospital emergency room.

• Miami police chief Timoney says he wants to keep job

  The day John Timoney was sworn in as Miami police chief in 2003, 11 of his troops stood trial for concocting evidence and planting guns in a spate of shootings. Seven would be convicted. Within two years, Timoney's administration would clean up the mess, turning a sometimes trigger-happy force into one where no officer fired a weapon for 20 months. Bad cops were punished. Crime dipped. Now the chief finds himself in a very public political fight, with his Miami career on the line.

• Report: Dugard initially denied her identity in kidnapping

  When Jaycee Lee Dugard resurfaced in August, she denied being the 11-year-old girl kidnapped in 1991 and defended Phillip Garrido as a "great person." She became defensive as officers questioned her, then asked for a lawyer. She tried to convince police she was fleeing an abusive husband in Minnesota. Then the young woman told police the truth, ending the 18-year mystery of her disappearance.

• Fort Hood gunman was bound for Afghanistan, not Iraq

  Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist suspected of killing 12 soldiers at Fort Hood Thursday, was in the "deployment window" and was headed for Afghanistan, not Iraq, as some sources had reported. Witnesses said he shouted the traditional Muslim blessing "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire.

• Couple accused of poisoning salsa at K.C. area restaurant

  Federal prosecutors accused former restaurant employees Arnoldo Bazan and his wife, Yini De La Torre of mixing pesticide into salsa Aug. 30 at the restaurant her uncle founded and sending at least a dozen people to the hospital. Prosecutors allege the couple poisoned the salsa to make customers sick so the restaurant would be blamed and hurt financially.

• Fort Hood no stranger to violent outbursts

  The massive base -- one of the largest U.S. Army bases in the world -- has seen its share of incidents. Until the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 -- ironically, the gunman in Thursday's bloodshed also attended Virginia Tech -- the Fort Hood area was the scene of the deadliest mass killing in U.S. history -- the 1991 Luby's Cafeteria killings that took 23 lives.

• Charred dolls found at home of Florida burn victim

  A pair of charred dolls were discovered this week in the backyard of burn victim Michael Brewer's Deerfield Beach home, according to a report released by the Broward Sheriff's Office on Thursday.

• Fort Hood shooter was Army psychiatrist who treated stress

  At least 12 people were killed and 31 wounded in a mass shooting at Fort Hood Army Base near Killeen, Texas, when at least one gunman opened fire on soldiers preparing to be deployed. The shooting broke out at the base's readiness center at about 1:30 p.m. The gunman, identified as Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was captured alive. Investigators were trying to determine if he had accomplices.

• Boise man sprays girlfriend with lighter fluid, threatens fire

  Jonathan Edward Drake, 23, is being held in the Ada County Jail on a felony charge of aggravated battery after Boise police say he sprayed lighter fluid on a woman late Wednesday night and then threatened her with a lighter.

• Python hoax leads to charges against Bradenton trapper

  A well-known Bradenton nuisance-animal trapper, who admitted to staging the capture of a 14-foot python on July 25, has been arrested on charges stemming from the hoax.