The state/region in brief

Police identify

4 slain women

TULSA - Tulsa police have released the identities of four women found shot dead in an apartment on the city’s south side.

Police had previously said all the victims were in their teens and early 20s.

The dead were identified Tuesday as twin sisters Rebeika Powell and Kayetie Melchor, both 23; Misty Nunley, 33; and Julie Jackson, 55.

Police did not say whether Nunley or Jackson were related to the twins.

The four were found dead Monday in the same unit at the Fairmont Terrace Apartments and a 3-year-old boy was found unharmed. Police have not identified a suspect and said it appeared the killings took place between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Monday.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Man, 50, killed at Tulsa complex

TULSA - City police are investigating the shooting death of a man at an east Tulsa apartment complex.

Police responded to a call of shots fired Monday night at Garden Courtyards Apartments. Tulsa television station KOTV reported that a 50-year-old man was visiting an apartment to care for his ill sister.

Police said the man was shot multiple times in the back while going up the stairs. He was pronounced dead at a Tulsa hospital.

Police have not yet released the man’s name. No one has been arrested.

The death is Tulsa’s seventh homicide of 2013 - and the fifth homicide on Monday, when four women were found shot to death at another apartment complex.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Body identified

as Helena man

HELENA-WEST HELENA - Authorities have identified a badly burned body found last month along a highway in Phillips County.

The Helena Daily World reported that medical examiners identified the victim as Elliot Bennett of Helena-West Helena.

The charred body was found Dec. 18 on the side of the road on Arkansas 44 near Helena-West Helena.

Authorities said the body was burned beyond recognition.

Authorities have not yet said how Bennett died. No arrests have been announced. - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Arkansan pleads innocent in assault

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - An Arkansas man pleaded innocent to charges that he intentionally drove into a group of joggers in downtown Cape Girardeau last year.

Vincent T. Anderson, of Little Rock pleaded innocent Monday to felony firstdegree assault and vehicle tampering.

Anderson, 19, and Marcus E. Jones of Cotton Plant were charged in October after a car they were in struck the joggers, who suffered bumps and bruises.

Police said the car was stolen shortly before it drove across lanes and went directly at the joggers.

Jones was sentenced last month to 90 days in the county jail for misdemeanor vehicle tampering.

The Southeast Missourian reported that Anderson faces more serious charges because police said he was the driver.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESSFor refusal to wear

mask, nurse fired

SPRINGFIELD - A nurse at Springfield’s Cox South hospital has been fired after she refused to wear a surgical mask because she did not get a flu shot.

Carla Brock was fired Monday after 11 years at the hospital.

The Springfield News-Leader reported the hospital requires employees to wear the masks if they have not been vaccinated against the flu. A hospital spokesman said masks can prevent the flu from being spread through the upper respiratory system.

But Brock said she believes the mask requirement is meant to punish those who refuse to be vaccinated. Brock received a religious exemption from the flu shot. She is a holistic nurse who said she has spiritual and religious reasons to not want the toxins from a flu shot in her body.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJury selection starts in abuse trial

POTEAU, Okla. - Jury selection is under way in the trial of a 62-year-old Oklahoma man charged with child neglect and sexual abuse after his nine children were found living in squalid conditions.

Meanwhile, the man’s wife pleaded no contest late Friday to multiple counts of child neglect and enabling child sexual abuse. The Southwest Times Record reports her sentencing is set for Feb. 22 in Poteau.

The Associated Press is not identifying the man or woman to protect the identities of the children.

Court records said the children were filthy and unable to recite the alphabet when they were taken into state custody in 2011.

Jury selection continued Tuesday. In October, a judge declared a mistrial in the man’s case because too many potential jurors had formed opinions on the case. - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 01/09/2013

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