QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It would be very helpful if they just agreed to sit down and negotiate with us.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has launched an effort to pressure his state’s four Republican House members to back broad changes to U.S. immigration law Article, 1A
Georgia teen convicted; shot baby dead
MARIETTA, Ga. - An 18-year-old man was convicted of murder in the shooting of a baby who was riding in a stroller alongside his mother in a town in coastal Georgia.
Jurors deliberated about two hours before finding De’Marquise Elkins guilty of 11 counts, including two counts of felony murder and one count of malice murder in the March 21 killing of 13-month-old Antonio Santiago in Brunswick. The man’s mother, Karimah Elkins, was on trial alongside him and was found guilty of tampering with evidence but acquitted of lying to police.
De’Marquise Elkins faces life in prison. At the time of the shooting he was 17, too young to face the death penalty under Georgia law.
Sherry West testified that she was walking home from the post office with her son the morning of the killing. A gunman demanded her purse, shot her in the leg and shot her baby in the face after she told him that she had no money, she said.
Prosecutors said during the trial that De’Marquise Elkins and an accomplice, 15-year-old Dominique Lang, both stopped West. Lang is set to go to trial at a later date.
Iowa halts Web program for abortion pills
DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Board of Medicine voted Friday to end a unique system in which doctors use the Internet to distribute abortion-inducing pills remotely to patients at clinics across the state.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has used the program since 2008 to supply thousands of pills to women in 15 remote locations. It was the first such program in the U.S., and several other states have since taken steps to prevent the practice. Anti-abortion activists petitioned the Iowa medical board earlier this summer to halt the program.
The medical board voted 8-2 Friday during a public meeting in favor of rules requiring that a doctor be physically present with a woman when an abortion-inducing drug is provided. The earliest the change could go into effect would be Nov. 6.
Sheriff is charged with abusing office
JACKSON, Miss. - A south Mississippi sheriff has been indicted on 31 counts, including charges accusing him of pushing for an arrest in a murder case even though a detective thought the suspect was innocent, and of snooping on employees at a restaurant that refused to accept a check from him.
The indictment against longtime Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd was dated Thursday and made public Friday. It charges him with using his office to retaliate against people he considered political and personal foes, including the police chief and a city alderman in Ocean Springs in Jackson County. The charges include fraud, extortion, embezzlement, witness tampering and perjury.
One of the charges said Byrd pressured a detective to sign a criminal affidavit and seek an arrest warrant against a man in a murder investigation in 2007 when the detective did not believe the man committed the crime. The indictment said Byrd was running for re-election at the time and wanted to be able to say there were no unsolved murders in the coastal Mississippi county of about 140,000 people.
Woman testifies in Navy assault case
WASHINGTON - A defense attorney on Friday spent hours questioning a midshipman’s spotty recollections of a toga party where she said she was sexually assaulted by three Naval Academy football players last year.
Attorney Lt. Cmdr. Angela Tang noted inconsistencies in what the 21-year-old senior told Navy investigators last year and how she is recalling the April 2012 off-campus party now during a military court hearing that will determine whether the men will face a court-martial.
The woman has testified repeatedly over three days on the stand that she had been drinking before and during the party in Annapolis, Md., and has no memory of having sex with any of the three men.
She said she only learned of what happened after hearing gossip that she had been with multiple sex partners at the house. That prompted her to ask one of the accused, Midshipman Josh Tate, 21, whether they had sex that night. She testified that he told her that they had. He also told her she had a sexual encounter with another one of the accused, Midshipman Eric Graham.
Tang, who is representing the 21-year-old Graham, noted that the woman testified she had consensual sex the morning after the party in the house with another football player.
Midshipman Tra’ves Bush, 22, also has been charged in the case.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 08/31/2013