Free Republic

A member of the Pagans motorcycle gang was sentenced to 28 years in prison yesterday for killing a Hillsborough man wearing a rival Hells Angels T-shirt in a Manville bar. William "Rodent" Martin, 35, of North Plainfield, faced life in prison when his murder trial began in Somerville in September. But only two days into the trial, Martin and codefendant Peter Ciarletta, 30, of Warren, reached separate deals with the state and pleaded guilty to lesser charges. -snip- The black T-shirt he was wearing on April 17, 2005 was given to him by a friend, witnesses testified. Somerset County Assistant...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A 48-year-old man entangled in an Internet love triangle built largely on lies was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for killing his rival for the affection of a woman he had never met. Thomas Montgomery, who posed as an 18-year-old Marine in online chats, pleaded guilty in August to gunning down Brian Barrett, 22, in a parking lot at the suburban Buffalo factory where they worked. The motive was jealousy, investigators said. Both were involved online with a middle-aged West Virginia mother —who herself was posing as an 18-year-old student. -snip-

In a new book alleging a campaign of slander and intimidation orchestrated chiefly by Hillary Clinton, Kathleen Willey points a finger of suspicion at the former first couple for the death of her husband, who was believed to have killed himself. Willey, who claims she was groped by President Clinton in the White House, acknowledged in an interview with WND today that she stands by the speculation she poses about her husband's demise in "Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton," set for release this week by World Ahead Publishing, WND Books' partner. Asked if she suspects...

A 19-year-old man suspected of killing a woman who answered an online ad for a baby sitter was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder. Michael John Anderson is accused of shooting Katherine Ann Olson in the back at his home in suburban Savage, according to the criminal complaint filed in Scott County District Court. Bail was set at $1 million. Olson had gone to Anderson's home Thursday to inquire about a baby-sitting job she had seen advertised on the popular Internet bulletin board Craigslist, authorities said. Authorities said her blood was found in Anderson's home and a gun was found in...

Excerpt - PITTSBURG, Calif. - A senior editor for PC World Magazine was shot to death in his home in what police described as a drug-related attack, authorities said Wednesday. Rex Farrance, 59, the San Francisco-based magazine's senior technical editor, was shot in the chest after four masked men broke into his home in a suburb east of the city around 9 p.m. Tuesday, Pittsburg police said. The assailants also pistol-whipped Farrance's wife, Lenore Vantosh-Farrance, 56, a registered nurse. She called 911, but the attackers fled before officers arrived. "We have substantial reason to believe that the victim and his...

"A woman was charged with abuse of a corpse Thursday after police found the remains of a baby in her freezer," the Associated Press reports from Pittsburgh: Police charged Christine Hutchinson, 22, of Pittsburgh, after interviewing her Thursday evening, several hours after the remains were found in her apartment. Officers got a tip from someone who knew Hutchinson that there was "possibly a baby that was dead and was in a freezer in an apartment in Bloomfield," a working-class neighborhood several miles east of downtown, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said. Detectives found what initially appeared to be a late-term...

VIRGINIA BEACH - Because one Hispanic person is accused of causing a tragic accident, Monica Restrepo said, she now frets that many will be judged and be the brunt of insults. "We're very worried about what's going to happen to all of us in the community," said Restrepo, who owns the decade-old La Tapatia, believed to be one of the first Latin American grocery stores in the city. Restrepo and other local Hispanics this week expressed their sympathy for the families of two Virginia Beach girls killed in a car crash March 30. But they also couldn't mask their concern...

DENVER -- Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony is featured in an underground DVD that is circulating in his home town of Baltimore, Md. The DVD is called "Stop Snitching" and shows alleged drug dealers talking about what happens to people who cooperate with the police, and Anthony is standing next to one of them. He is also seen on the DVD talking about his Olympic bronze medal and saying that he threw it in a lake. The man he stands next to later goes on to tell how he would take care of snitches by "putting a hole in their...

Racine man fatally shot teen trying to break into car.Racine - Rejecting the defense's argument of self-defense, a jury Monday found Adrial C. White of Racine guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of attempted homicide in the shooting death of a Racine man and the wounding of another in a case that divided the community.The verdict means White could face life in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 8. White, 29, had contended that he was acting in self-defense when he went outside his house early Jan. 18 and found three teens attempting to break into his girlfriend's...

BREAKING ON THE AP WIRE: WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.

Gay activist is charged with assaulting police officer Jason Robbins, 26, was resisting arrest outside the home of an evangelical group's member, police say. By Benjamin Y. Lowe Inquirer Staff Writer A Philadelphia gay rights activist is in Chester County jail awaiting a hearing scheduled for tomorrow on charges of aggravated assault and resisting arrest after a confrontation with a police officer near Phoenixville. Jason Robbins, 26, was charged after an encounter with an East Pikeland Township police officer investigating a reported disturbance. Robbins sat in his car as six others walked back and forth holding placards outside the Oak...

A State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan convicted an undercover police officer yesterday in the killing of an unarmed African immigrant during a raid on a Chelsea warehouse two years ago. Justice Robert H. Straus convicted the officer, Bryan Conroy, 27, of criminally negligent homicide for shooting the immigrant, Ousmane Zongo, 43, during a chase down a dead-end corridor.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — A jury found a patrolman guilty Saturday of killing a gay college student who had talked about revealing their sexual affair to the police chief. Steven Rios, a married junior officer in this university town's police force, was convicted of the first-degree murder of his lover, Jesse Valencia, 23. The finding by the nine-woman, three-man panel carries an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole for Rios, 28. Jurors also recommended an additional, largely symbolic sentence of 10 years for the charge of armed criminal action related to Rios' use of a knife in the crime....

GLENDALE --The 25-year-old man accused of causing the chain-reaction Metrolink derailment that killed 11 passengers and injured 180 others was charged early today with multiple counts of murder. Juan Manuel Alvarez, of Compton, was being held without bail at a hospital's jail ward, pending his arraignment this afternoon. Alvarez is accused of leaving his Jeep Grand Cherokee on a railroad track after apparently changing his mind about committing suicide. Relatives said he was despondent over marital problems. ''He's not going to engage my sympathy because he was despondent. His despondency doesn't move me,'' District Attorney Steve Cooley told The Associated...

The head of a national homosexual organization is vowing to politically "punish," "terrify" and "torture" activists who oppose his organization's agenda on "gay" rights – which he says would give him "endless satisfaction." Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D.C., made the comments in yesterday's edition of Between the Lines, a Detroit area homosexual newsmagazine, the American Family Association of Michigan points out. In addition to declaring his desire for retribution against "local legislators and leaders" who oppose the homosexual agenda, Foreman expressed a goal beyond securing legal same-sex marriage, that is...

VENTURA, Calif. - Two bodies were found Saturday near the California State University, Channel Islands campus shortly after police received reports of suspicious activity in the area, authorities said. The man and woman died of gunshot wounds, said Deputy Eric Buschow, of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. The bodies have not been identified, he said. The bodies were found around 3:15 p.m. in a remote area west of campus, shortly after campus police received calls about suspicious activity near an electrical generating plant on the southwest side of the property, Buschow said. Witnesses reported seeing two men in a white,...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - FBI agents arrested professional hockey player Michael Danton on Friday on charges he tried to hire someone to murder a man who had apparently been his lover, according to court documents. Reuters Photo A criminal complaint filed in U.S. district court for Southern Illinois said Danton -- who was arrested hours after a playoff game in San Jose, California -- told a friend an invented story about a fellow-Canadian who wanted to kill him over a debt. He asked the friend, Katie Wolfmeyer, 19, if she knew anyone willing to kill the man for $10,000. Wolfmeyer...

GENEVA — The music director at St. Peter Catholic Church was jailed Tuesday in New York and accused of killing his former lover nearly five years ago. Michael Pavone, 58, is charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal mischief in connection with the grisly slaying of Keith A. Sutherland, Erie County, N.Y., Deputy District Attorney Joseph Marusak said. Sutherland, 45, of Buffalo, N.Y., was found repeatedly stabbed and beaten Oct. 21, 1999, floating in a pond in the Tifft Nature Preserve on the city's south side near where his car was found with its windows and headlights...

WASHINGTON -- Ten months ago, when concerns arose about a possible link between children taking antidepressant drugs and suicide attempts, senior officials at the Food and Drug Administration ordered their leading expert to head up an examination of the evidence. EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR When the government scientist filed his report last winter, however, his bosses decided to keep it secret — even though it found that children who took the drugs were twice as likely to be involved in serious suicide-related behavior as those who did not. Instead of revealing the findings, senior FDA officials ordered more...

<p>DETROIT -- Two teenagers who beat the grandmother of one of them to death because she opposed their lesbian relationship were convicted Thursday of first-degree murder.</p> <p>Two Wayne County Circuit Court juries found Larqueta Collier, 16, and Sharon Patterson, 17, guilty in the Sept. 17, 2003, death of Bertha Atkins. Collier also was convicted of arson for setting fire to her 64-year-old grandmother's house, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said.</p>