The state/region in brief

Sentencing today in molesting case

TEXARKANA - Federal prosecutors are seeking the maximum sentence for a former Texarkana-area youth baseball coach who pleaded guilty to molesting young players.

Prosecutors are limited in the sentence they can pursue for Walter Richard Roberts, 60, because he pleaded guilty to offenses that occurred in 1992.

People convicted of taking children across state lines for sex are now subject to a federal sentence of 10 years to life.

Court papers said Roberts is accused of molesting three victims who were younger than 12. The filing said Roberts admitted to molesting a fourth victim, but that person can’t remember the abuse.

The sentencing proceeding is set for today.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Iron statue of hog stolen from yard

TEXARKANA - Authorities in Texarkana are searching for a 300-pound, cast-iron statue of a razorback that was swiped from a couple’s fenced backyard.

Charla and Stephen Harris reported that the hog statue was missing Saturday. Charla Harris told the Texarkana Gazette that it took four people to drag the statue into the backyard when the Harrises purchased it. So she suspects several people are involved in the theft.

Harris said she and her husband bought the statue from an antique dealer because they’re both big University of Arkansas fans.

A smaller, lightweight statue was stolen from the couple’s front yard a few years ago. Charla Harris said it eventually turned up in a ditch in Genoa.

Anyone with information is asked to call Texarkana police.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

2 admit stealing wiring in Joplin

JOPLIN, Mo. - Two men admit that they stole copper wire from utility poles while the city of Joplin was recovering from a devastating tornado in May 2011.

Timothy M. Silveria, 45, of Joplin and Nycoa K.

Kracht, 32, of Laurel, Ind., pleaded guilty Monday to felony counts of theft from a public utility. They face up to seven years in prison during sentencing July 22.

The Joplin Globe reported that a third man, Dennis Ray, 43, of Joplin, was sentenced to three years in prison for the same charge.

Police arrested the defendants three days after the tornado, which killed 161 people.

More than $500 worth of copper was found in the men’s truck. Kracht told police that they were going to donate money they got for the scrap metal to tornado victims.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

‘Pot’ penalty plan falters once more

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Springfield’s City Council has voted again not to lower the penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The council Monday night defeated a proposal to limit penalties for possession of the drug and declined to place an alternative proposal on the August ballot.

Supporters of the proposals said they would meet later to decide what their next step might be, The Springfield News-Leader reported.

The proposal would have required the city to charge some first- and second-time offenders who had 35 grams or less of marijuana with municipal infractions, rather than criminal misdemeanors. Exemptions also would have allowed suspects to be prosecuted in state court for multiple offenses or when other crimes are committed, or at the discretion of the county prosecutor.

Last summer, proponents gathered enough signatures to put the issue to a public vote, but council members declined to put it on the November ballot. Instead, the council approved the petition and then repealed it at the first opportunity.

In response, the proponents’ attorney, Chip Sheppard, worked with city staff members and Councilman Cindy Rushefsky to draft an amended proposal, with a goal of putting it on the August ballot.

The council voted 6-2 to not approve the first proposal, and then agreed unanimously not to put the alternative up for a vote.

Opponents argued that the decriminalization of marijuana possession should be done by the state, if at all.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Execution date sought in ’79 case

OKLAHOMA CITY - Attorney General Scott Pruitt is asking for an execution date for a man convicted in the 1979 slaying of a woman in Tulsa.

Pruitt on Monday said in an appeals court filing that Anthony Rozelle Banks had exhausted his appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier in the day turned away a request by Banks for a hearing.

The 60-year-old Banks wasn’t charged until 1997 when he and a co-defendant were linked by DNA evidence to the killing of 24-year-old Sun “Kim” Travis.

Travis was kidnapped from a parking lot in Tulsa, raped and shot in the head.

Pruitt asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to set an execution date within 60 days or at the earliest date it deems fit.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Student charged in grades changes

NORMAN, Okla. - Authorities have charged a University of Oklahoma student with computer-related crimes reportedly tied to changes made to his grades.

Prosecutors Thursday charged 24-year-old Roja Osman Hamad with five counts of computer fraud or unlawful use of a computer or system.

The Norman Transcript reported that Hamad is accused of changing the passwords of six OU faculty members without their permission. Investigators said Hamad had access to the system through his campus job.

After changing the passwords, Hamad had access to the faculty accounts and then altered his grades, authorities allege.

Once the passwords were changed, the faculty members couldn’t access the OU computer system.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 12 on 05/22/2013

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