Theodore Simon, the Philadelphia attorney who was instrumental in securing Amanda Knox’s freedom, says his client is doing “remarkably well.”

“I spent several hours … with Amanda in D.C.,” he said. “Amanda is thoughtful and articulate. She is studying creative writing at the University of Washington and plans on pursuing a career in publishing.”

Knox was convicted in 2009 of murdering Meredith Kercher in Italy and served four years in prison. She was later acquitted in October 2011; however, that decision was also overturned in March, and the case has been sent back to an Italian court for reconsideration.

The favorable report produced by Simon’s DNA expert had contributed to the reopening of Knox’s conviction, Simon said.

“Fortunately, I secured the world’s greatest DNA expert, the scientist who formed the DNA lab for the FBI, as our expert,” said Simon, who worked in conjunction with Knox’s Italian lawyers. “He found that the knife, which was a key piece of trial evidence, did not contain blood. Therefore, it could not have been the murder weapon.”

One cannot preferentially remove blood and leave DNA, Simon explained.

While the Italian courts have reopened the case again, Simon stressed that under Italian law, Knox is not required to attend the next hearing, and that the issues being discussed do not implicate her.

Simon is not worried that his client will be found guilty in the upcoming proceedings.

“There is no evidence, was no evidence, nor will there ever be any evidence linking her to the murder,” said Simon.

Other famous clients

Amanda Knox is not Simon’s first famous, or infamous, client. He has previously represented French “Spider-Man” Alain Robert, murderer Ira Einhorn while he was fighting his extradition from France to Philadelphia, boxing promoter Don King, former Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones and Minnesota Timberwolves forward Dante Cunningham.

Quoted

Simon, who has successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, describes his practice as “white collar, blue collar and no collar.”

“It is a gift to be a lawyer, providing care and assistance to people at the worst time in their lives when they are facing the loss of liberty or seeking compensation as a redress for a wrong,” he said.

The post Amanda Knox’s Philly lawyer said the evidence is not there to convict her appeared first on Metro.us.

Emergency workers pulled more than 100 survivors from the rubble of homes, schools and a hospital in an Oklahoma town hit by a powerful tornado, and officials on Tuesday sharply lowered the number of deaths caused by the storm.

The 2-mile (3-km) wide tornado tore through Moore outside Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon, trapping victims beneath the rubble.

Seven children died at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which took a direct hit, but many more survived unhurt.

“They literally were lifting walls up and kids were coming out,” Oklahoma State Police Sergeant Jeremy Lewis said. “They pulled kids out from under cinder blocks without a scratch on them.”

The Oklahoma state medical examiner’s office said 24 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage, down from the 51 they had reported earlier. The earlier number likely reflected some double-counted deaths, said Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer for the medical examiner.

“There was a lot of chaos,” she said.

Thunderstorms and lightning slowed the rescue effort on Tuesday, but 101 people had been pulled from the debris alive, Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokeswoman Betsy Randolph said.

Firefighters from more than a dozen fire departments and rescuers from other states worked all night under bright spotlights trying to find survivors.

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in Moore after the deadliest U.S. tornado since 161 people were killed in Joplin, Missouri, two years ago.

“The people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground, there for them, beside them, as long as it takes,” Obama said at the White House.

Glenn Lewis, the mayor of Moore, said the whole town looked like a debris field and there was a danger of electrocution and fire from downed power lines and broken natural gas lines.

“It looks like we have lost our hospital. I drove by there a while ago and it’s pretty much destroyed,” Lewis told NBC.

The National Weather Service assigned the twister a preliminary ranking of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning the second most powerful category of tornado with winds up to 200 mph.

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center warned the town 16 minutes before the tornado touched down at 3:01 p.m. (2001 GMT), which is more than the average eight to 10 minutes of warning, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the center in Norman, Oklahoma.

SCHOOL TRAGEDY

U.S. Representative Tom Cole, who lives in Moore, said the Plaza Towers school was the most secure and structurally strong building in the area.

“And so people did the right thing, but if you’re in front of an F4 or an F5 there is no good thing to do if you’re above ground. It’s just tragic,” he said on MSNBC TV.

At least 60 of the 240 people injured were children, hospital officials said.

Witnesses said Monday’s tornado appeared more fierce than the giant twister that was among the dozens that tore up the area on May 3, 1999, killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes. That tornado ranked as an EF5 tornado with wind speeds of more than 200 mph.

The 1999 tornado ranks as the third-costliest tornado in U.S. history, having caused more than $1 billion in damage at the time, or more than $1.3 billion in today’s dollars. Only the devastating Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes in 2011 were more costly.

Monday’s tornado in Moore ranks among the most severe in the United States http://link.reuters.com/gec38t

Jeff Alger, 34, who works in the Kansas oil fields on a fracking crew, said his wife Sophia took their children out of school when she heard a tornado was coming and then fled Moore and watched it flatten the town from a few miles away.

“They didn’t even have time to grab their shoes,” said Alger, who has five children aged 4 to 11. The storm tore part of the roof off of his home. He was with his wife at Norman Regional Hospital to have glass and other debris removed from his wife’s bare feet.

Moore was devastated with debris everywhere, street signs gone, lights out, houses destroyed and vehicles tossed about as if they were toys.

The dangerous storm system threatened several southern Plains states with more twisters.

SAVED BY CELLPHONE

Speaking outside Norman Regional Hospital Ninia Lay, 48, said she huddled in a closet through two storm alerts and the tornado hit on the third.

“I was hiding in the closet and I heard something like a train coming,” she said under skies still flashing with lightning. The house was flattened and Lay was buried in the rubble for two hours until her husband Kevin, 50, and rescuers dug her out.

“I thank God for my cell phone, I called me husband for help.”

Her 7-year-old daughter Catherine, a first-grader at Plaza Towers Elementary School, took shelter with classmates and teachers in a bathroom when the tornado hit and destroyed the school. She escaped with scrapes and cuts.

Briarwood Elementary School, which also stood in the storm’s path, was all but destroyed. On the first floor, sections of walls had been peeled away, giving clear views into the building; while in other areas, cars hurled by the storm winds were lodged in the walls.

At Southmoore High School in Moore, about 15 students were in a field house when the tornado hit. Coaches sent them to an interior locker room and made them put on football helmets, and all survived, the Oklahoman newspaper said.

(Additional reporting by Alice Mannette, Lindsay Morris, Nick Carey, Brendan O’Brien and Greg McCune; Writing by Nick Carey and Jane Sutton; Editing by W Simon and Grant McCool)

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At least 91 people, including 20 children, were feared killed when a 2 mile wide tornado tore through an Oklahoma City suburb, trapping victims beneath the rubble as one elementary school took a direct hit and another was destroyed.

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  PHOTOS: Devastation caused by Oklahoma tornado

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in Moore after the deadliest U.S. tornado since one killed 161 people in Joplin, Missouri, two years ago.

Emergency crews were desperately searching the wreckage of Plaza Towers Elementary School that took a direct hit from the tornado on Monday afternoon, Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb told CNN.

There was an outpouring of grief on the school’s Facebook page, with messages from around the country including one pleading simply: “Please find those little children.”

Another elementary school, homes and a hospital were among the buildings leveled, leaving residents of the town of about 50,000 people stunned at the devastation and loss of life.

The Oklahoma medical examiner said 20 of the 91 expected to have been killed were children. The office had already confirmed 51 dead and had been told by emergency services to expect 40 more bodies found in the debris, but had not yet received them.

At least 60 of the 240 people injured were children, area hospitals said.

“We thought we died because we were inside the cellar door … It ripped open the door and just glass and debris started slamming on us and we thought we were dead to be honest,” Ricky Stover said while surveying the devastated remains of his home.

Moore was devastated with debris everywhere, street signs gone, lights out, houses destroyed and vehicles tossed about as if they were toys.

Rescuers were searching for survivors throughout the swath of devastation into the early hours of Tuesday, while the dangerous storm system threatened several southern Plains states with more twisters. Severe weather was expected through the night from the Great Lakes south to Texas.

STORM ALERTS

Speaking outside Norman Regional Hospital Ninia Lay, 48, said she huddled in a closet through two storm alerts and the tornado hit on the third.

“I was hiding in the closet and I heard something like a train coming,” she said under skies still flashing with lightning. The house was flattened and Lay was buried in the rubble for two hours until her husband Kevin, 50, and rescuers dug her out.

“I thank God for my cell phone, I called me husband for help.”

Her daughter Catherine, seven, a first-grader at Plaza Towers Elementary School, took shelter with classmates and teachers in a bathroom when the tornado hit and destroyed the school. She escaped with scrapes and cuts.

The National Weather Service assigned the twister a preliminary ranking of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning the second most powerful category of tornado with winds up to 200 mph.

Witnesses said Monday’s tornado appeared more fierce than the giant twister that was among the dozens that tore up the area on May 3, 1999, killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes. That tornado ranked as an EF5, meaning it had winds over 200 mph.

The 1999 event in Oklahoma ranks as the third-costliest tornado in U.S. history, having caused more than $1 billion in damage at the time, or more than $1.3 billion in today’s dollars. Only the devastating Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes in 2011 were more costly.

SCHOOL DESTROYED

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center provided the town with a warning 16 minutes before the tornado touched down at 3:01 p.m. (4.01 p.m. EDT), which is greater than the average eight to 10 minutes of warning, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the center in Norman, Oklahoma.

The notice was upgraded to emergency warning with “heightened language” at 2:56 p.m., or five minutes before the tornado touched down, Pirtle said.

Television media measured the tornado at more than 2 miles wide, with images showing entire neighborhoods flattened.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a temporary flight restriction that allowed only relief aircraft in the area, saying it was at the request of police who needed quiet to search for buried survivors.

Oklahoma activated the National Guard, and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency activated teams to support recovery operations and coordinate responses for multiple agencies.

Briarwood Elementary School, which also stood in the storm’s path, was all but destroyed. On the first floor, sections of walls had been peeled away, giving clear views into the building; while in other areas, cars hurled by the storm winds were lodged in the walls.

Across the street, people picked through the remains of their homes.

The number of injured as reported by several hospitals rose rapidly throughout the afternoon.

Oklahoma University Medical Center alone was treating 65 patients, 45 of them children, though it was no longer expecting a further mass influx of casualties, spokesman Scott Coppenbarger said.

Moore Medical Center itself sustained significant damage.

“The whole city looks like a debris field,” Glenn Lewis, the mayor of Moore, told NBC.

“It looks like we have lost our hospital. I drove by there a while ago and it’s pretty much destroyed,” Lewis said.

The massive twister struck at the height of tornado season, and more were forecast. On Sunday, tornadoes killed two people and injured 39 in Oklahoma.

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President Barack Obama, under fire for security lapses at a U.S. mission in Libya, will in a speech on Thursday lay out his wide-ranging counter-terrorism policy, from the controversial use of drones to efforts to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Obama’s use of military drone aircraft to attack extremists has drawn fire and increased tensions in countries like Pakistan and been criticized by human rights activists in the United States.

His inability to follow through on a 2008 campaign pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay prison has been dramatized by a hunger strike among many of the terrorism suspects being held there.

And the resurgence in recent weeks of questions surrounding the deaths of U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in an attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, last year has put Obama on the defensive.

In his State of the Union speech early this year Obama pledged to work with Congress to make certain that the U.S. targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorism suspects was consistent with U.S. law.

A White House official said Obama would address these issues in a speech on Thursday at the National Defense University in Washington. He will say that al Qaeda has been significantly degraded but remains a threat, along with its affiliates, the official said on condition of anonymity.

“He will review the state of the threats we face, particularly as al Qaeda’s core has weakened but new dangers have emerged,” said the official.

Obama also will discuss the policy and legal framework under which the United States acts against terrorism threats, including the use of drones.

“He will review our detention policy and efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and he will frame the future of our efforts against al Qaeda, its affiliates and adherents,” the official said.

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The incident occurred in the Appalachian town of Damascus at the start of the annual Trail Days festival, as the main street was filled with hikers making their way from one end of town to a park at the other, volunteer fire department chief Ben Sanders told Reuters.

Sanders said investigators were uncertain what caused the collision between the automobile and the parade, but it appeared that the elderly man who was driving “passed out or had some medical issue, and he ran through the crowd with his car.”

None of the injuries was believed to be life-threatening, Sanders added.

He said the motorist told authorities afterward he did not remember what had happened.

Steve Webb, who helps run a backpacking and outfitters store in town, said a number of hikers he spoke with afterward told him they saw bystanders lifting the runaway car off a person who had been dragged under the vehicle.

Webb said amateur video footage he saw of the accident showed “the car coming up behind the hikers and running through them,” adding that the automobile in question appeared to have pulled around an ambulance before plowing into the crowd.

Sanders said three to four people who were the most seriously hurt were flown to hospitals by helicopter, and about six to eight others were transported by ambulance. Eight to 10 people with fairly minor injuries were treated at the scene, he said.

A spokesman for Johnston Memorial Hospital in nearby Abington confirmed his hospital had treated seven people brought by ambulance with injuries they received in Damascus.

The annual Trail Days festival draws thousands of tourists to Damascus for an event celebrating the town’s proximity to four scenic trails that converge there – the Appalachian Trail, U.S. Bicycle Route 76, the Iron Mountain Trail and the Virginia Creeper Trail.

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Federal investigators on Saturday searched for the cause of a rush-hour train crash in Connecticut that injured dozens of people commuting home from New York City, three of them critically.

More than 60 people were hospitalized Friday night after an eastbound commuter train derailed and collided with a westbound passenger train on an adjacent track near the Connecticut suburb of Fairfield.

Eight people remained hospitalized on Saturday, three in critical condition, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said.

The collision of the Metro-North trains forced Amtrak to shut down service indefinitely between New York and Boston.

The governor is encouraging commuters who normally use the line to find alternative ways to get to work on Monday.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived at the scene on Saturday to determine the cause. There had been construction and repair work going on in the area and one question was whether debris was on the track.

“They can’t rule anything out,” said Malloy, adding that he wanted investigators to complete their work as quickly as possible so the busy commuter rail line could be reopened.

The eastbound train was headed to New Haven, Connecticut, when it collided with the train bound for New York’s Grand Central Station.

NTSB officials said several cars had derailed, not an entire train.

Malloy said the train cars were new and “designed to the latest standards” for safety and protection of passengers.

“To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that a car like this has been involved in this kind of incident and by all appearances they responded well,” Malloy said. “One of the things you look at, for instance – did the seats become removed and that sort of stuff. It is going to take some more investigation. That is why they are here.”

Metro-North is a commuter railroad serving the northern suburbs of New York City. It is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a New York state agency. Fairfield is about 50 miles north of New York City.

The rail line serves a major corridor between Boston and New York. The New Haven line operated by Metro-North is the busiest rail line in America and serves 125,000 commuters a day, said Judd Everhart of the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

Malloy said the state Department of Transportation already has ordered the large equipment needed to remove the cars, which will be picked up and put on flatbeds to be taken to another location for further investigation.

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Nearly 50 people were injured on Friday when two commuter trains collided during evening rush hour near the Connecticut town of Fairfield, shutting down Amtrak service between New York and Boston indefinitely, police and transit officials said.

Authorities said there were no reports of fatalities in the accident that occurred shortly after 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT).

Anita Shrum, a spokeswoman for Bridgeport Hospital, said one person was seriously injured but the other 21 people it had received could be described as “walking wounded” with a variety of injuries. “They are doing OK, they are very stable,” Shrum said.

Dianne Auger, a spokeswoman for St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, said one of the 27 people taken there was in serious condition with head and neck injuries. Commuter trains on this busy commuter line to New York typically carry up to 300 passengers.

The number of injured could rise because hospital officials were told to prepare to receive up to 180 patients total.

Passengers wait to be picked up by bus after two commuter trains collided in Bridgeport, Connecticut, causing one to derail injuring numerous passengers.
Credit: Reuters

The accident occurred when an eastbound train on the Metro-North commuter rial line derailed and collided with a train headed in the opposite direction near the suburban town of Fairfield, said spokesman Aaron Donovan of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs the railroad.

Amtrak officials said in a statement that it suspended service indefinitely on the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor between Boston and New York.

The cause of the derailment was not immediately known. Fairfield is about 50 miles north of New York City.

A woman is transported to the hospital after two commuter trains collided in Bridgeport.
Credit: Reuters

The post Nearly 50 hurt as two commuter trains collide in Connecticut; NYC-Boston Amtrak service suspended appeared first on Metro.us.

UPDATE 8 p.m.: Union County N.J. officials announced Thursday evening that Philadelphia Police apprehended Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, AKA Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, at the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Philadelphia.

McGillvary has been charged in the murder of Clark, N.J. man Joseph Galfy Jr.

According to a news release, McGillvary will be processed in Philadelphia and returned to New Jersey. He will be lodged in the Union County Jail in Elizabeth.

“I am grateful for the overwhelming response and dedicated effort by the public and law enforcement that led to this arrest,” said Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow in a news release. “I believe that everyone is a little safer with this person off the streets.”

McGillvary received Internet fame earlier this year after he gave a lively television interview depicting how he used a hatchet to repeatedly strike a man who purposefully ran over a utility worker and also tried to beat up a woman who intervened. The video went viral. McGillvary had hitched a ride with the assailant before the incident.

ORIGINAL REPORT: Kai the Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, who rose to Internet fame earlier this year after giving a lively interview on TV about how he used a hatchet on a man who was trying to beat up a woman, is wanted for the murder of New Jersey man, officials with the Union County Prosecutor’s Office said today.

Kai, whose real name is Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, was apparently last seen at the Patco station in Haddonfield, Camden County, N.J.

Officials with the Union County Task Force and the Clark Police Department issued an arrested warrant for McGillvary in the May 12 homicide of Clark man Joseph Galfy Jr., according to a press release.

Officials said Galfy was found inside his home May 13 after a welfare check. After a May 14 autopsy, it was determined Galfy died of blunt force trauma.

McGillvary, 23, is homeless, but has referred to himself as “homefree,” said Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romanhow in a release.

In February, McGillvary hitched a ride with a driver who then, on purpose, ran over a utility worker in California. The driver, who proclaimed to be Jesus Christ, tried to beat up a woman who intervened to help. McGillvary told a local television station he grabbed a hatchet and hit the assailant.

McGillvary was then known as Kai the Hitchhiker and the local news report with his interview went viral. He made an appearance on national media outlets including Jimmy Kimmel Live.

New Jersey officials said McGillvary cut his hair to alter his appearance and is still at-large. He is considered armed and dangerous.

Caleb Lawrence McGillvary AKA Kai the Hitchhiker. Credit Union County Prosecutor’s Office

Union County Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to his arrest.

McGillvary has been charged with murder and his bail has been set at $3 million.

Officials wrote: All tips are kept anonymous and may be called into (908) 654-TIPS (8477), www.uctip.org, or text UCTIP plus a message 274637.

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“They were going to cover up the story when it happened and then it ended up going viral and they reported it all late to the police department,” Green said Tuesday.

Green’s son, whose name was withheld, was attacked by students in the high school’s library on May 7. The incident was reported to police by a student, not the school, Green said.

He was hit with a chair, fists and feet. He was hit and kicked in the head, face and back. The students then dipped into his pockets and stole his cell phone and money and then took his schoolbag, Green said.

Green also said his son had a gun pointed in his face only days earlier.

“When it happened, two days prior, there was a gun pulled in his face on school property,” Green said.

He said the school’s principal said an investigation was underway, but never heard back.

“Tuesday shows up, and next thing you know he gets jumped,” Green said.

Chester Upland School District Receiver Joseph Watkins and Deputy Police Commissioner Otis Blair did not return calls for comment.

He said his son was a victim of “Fight Week,” where Freshmen or newer students are targeted. He suffered a concussion and received about seven stitches in the back of his head.

“They laid him out,” Green said. “It was really ugly.”

The fight was one of many at the school that day.

Five students were arrested and are awaiting trial at Delaware County prison. The preliminary hearing, which was scheduled for Tuesday, was pushed back to May 25th, according to Green.

Green, who lives in Chester but works as a chef at a Philadelphia diner, said his son will be home-schooled for the rest of the year.

“The way that school is being run,” Green said, “I can’t even trust it.”

The post Father says Chester High School tried to cover up son’s assault appeared first on Metro.us.

What do you give the kid that has everything?

For Jaden Smith’s 15th birthday, the son of power couple Will and Jada Pinkett apparently asked for his freedom.

According to a report in british tabloid The Sun, the couple’s oldest son and young co-star of the summer blockbuster “After Earth” wants to emancipate himself from his famous family.

In an interview with Metro in April, Will and Jaden spoke about the upcoming movie and the emancipation topic came up:

Jaden, what happens when you’re 18 and Will kicks you out of the house.

J: We’ll probably work together ‘till he retires and he probably won’t retire.

W: [Laughs] No we’ve been talking about, he’s been thinking about becoming an emancipated minor.

J: Just thoughts that pop into my head.

Will Smith’s publicist, Meredith O’Sullivan, did not return a call for comment.

Read The Sun’s story, here.

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UPDATE 4:45 p.m.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor who yesterday was found guilty on three murder charges, agreed today to waive all appeals rights in exchange for life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death penalty, said officials with the city district attorney’s office.

Gosnell was immediately sentenced for the deaths of babies known as “C” and “D.” He will be sentenced on the death of baby “A” at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.

A press conference will be held at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow.

The gag order in place for Gosnell remains until after tomorrow’s sentencing, the DA’s office said.

Original story:

Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell will receive life in prison—not the death penalty—after he waived any rights for future appeals today, several media outlets are reporting.

A jury yesterday found Gosnell guilty of murdering three babies in the now-shuttered Women’s Medical Society Clinic in West Philadelphia that serves low-income women looking for late-term abortions.

Read that story here.

Stay with Metro as more comes in.

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute reports. @Metrophilly

The post UPDATE: Abortion doc Kermit Gosnell avoids death penalty appeared first on Metro.us.

Britain’s Prince Harry toured the rebuilding efforts underway at the Jersey Shore on Tuesday amid crowds gathered for a glimpse of the young royal, and to say goodbye to a popular roller coaster – a symbol of Superstorm Sandy’s destruction.

Chilly sea breezes carried the scent of fresh-cut lumber, as the newly repaired boardwalk, still covered with sawdust, quickly filled up with people. There were about 100 spectators – and even more reporters, photographers and TV crews – awaiting the prince and his escort, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

“It’s great exposure for the Shore,” said Roger Gibson, 27, a manager of a boardwalk staple, Jimbo’s Bar & Grill. “It lets people know we are open and ready for business.”

Crowds pressed against metal barricades draped with the red, white and blue British Union Jack. Visible in the ocean behind them was the towering frame of the Jet Star roller coaster, washed out to sea by Sandy.

Crews will start work on Tuesday to dismantle and remove the Jet Star and other amusement park rides submerged nearby.

“We are here to say goodbye,” said Kim Stone of Bayville, New Jersey.

Her husband, Mark Stone, said the sight of the Jersey Shore landmark stranded in the ocean would certainly leave an impression on Prince Harry. “I’m sure he doesn’t want to see it like that,” he said.

Casino Pier, which owns the amusement rides, said the removal would take about 48 hours.

Sandy slammed into New Jersey on October 29, ravaging the coastline, causing $30 billion in damage. Prince Harry and Governor Christie began their tour in Mantoloking, a narrow barrier island community between New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean, where all 521 houses were affected.

When Jersey Shore residents were evacuated, most expected they would return after a few days and were stunned when the devastation turned out to be so extreme that it would be months before they could go home.

The storm killed more than 130 people throughout the U.S. Northeast.

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Update 4:15 p.m.

(Reuters) – A Philadelphia abortion doctor was found guilty on Monday of murdering three babies during late-term abortions at a clinic serving low-income women.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-shuttered Women’s Medical Society Clinic, faces the possibility of the death penalty in the case that focused on whether the infants were born alive and then killed.

He was accused of delivering live babies during late-term abortions and then deliberately severing their spinal cords.

The case focused a spotlight on the controversial practice of late-term abortions and drew national attention after anti-abortion advocates complained that it was being ignored because of media bias in favor of abortion rights.

The jury heard five weeks of testimony in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia and deliberated for 10 days.

Gosnell also was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the case of Karnamaya Mongar, 41, of Virginia, who died from a drug overdose after going to him for an abortion.

He also was found guilty of performing 21 abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy at his clinic, which served mostly low-income women in a largely black community. It is legal in Pennsylvania to abort a fetus only up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

The jury earlier in the day said it was deadlocked on two counts, without specifying which ones. But Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Minehart ordered the seven-woman, five-man panel back to resume deliberations.

Gosnell’s defense had claimed there was no evidence the babies were alive after they were aborted.

But according to witness testimony, the babies were born breathing, moving and making sounds.

Testimony also depicted a filthy clinic.

He has been in jail since his arrest in January 2011.

Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and are awaiting sentencing. They include Gosnell’s wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist who helped perform abortions.

Original:

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor who ran the now-closed Women’s Medical Society Clinic, has been found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder, according to reports.

He was found not guilty of capital murder for one of the abortions.

He was also found guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of an adult patient.

A Philadelphia jury was in deliberation since April 30. Earlier today, jury members were hung on two counts in the trial.

He has been in jail since his arrest in January 2011.

Gosnell faces the death penalty.

More to come.

Follow @metrophilly for the latest in this case. Or, follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/MetroPhilly

The post Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell guilty on three counts of first-degree murder (UPDATE) appeared first on Metro.us.

In its 10th day of deliberations in the Kermit Gosnell murder trial, jurors told the judge Monday they were questioning two counts.

The jury in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia is deliberating on whether to convict the doctor in the deaths of babies and a patient during late-term abortions at a clinic that served low-income women.

Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-closed Women’s Medical Society Clinic, may face the death penalty.

The seven-woman, five-man jury, after taking the weekend off, resumed deliberations at about 8:30 a.m. and sent out a handwritten note about 90 minutes later. Judge Jeffrey Minehart sent the panel back for further deliberations.

Gosnell is charged with four counts of first-degree murder for delivering live babies during late-term abortions and then deliberately severing their spinal cords, prosecutors said.

He also faces charges that he performed 24 abortions after 24 weeks. It is legal in Pennsylvania to abort a fetus up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

In addition, he faces charges of conspiracy and more than 200 counts of violating the state’s informed consent law, which mandates a 24-hour waiting period for an abortion.

The jury heard five weeks of testimony and has been deliberating since April 30.

Gosnell’s defense says there is no evidence the babies were alive after they were aborted.

Testimony depicted a filthy clinic, serving mostly low-income women in a largely black community.

Gosnell is also charged with murdering Karnamaya Mongar, 41, of Virginia, who died from a drug overdose after going to him for an abortion, prosecutors said.

Gosnell has been in jail since his January 2011 arrest.

Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and are awaiting sentencing. They include Gosnell’s wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist who helped perform abortions.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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A tense weekend standoff in a South Trenton, N. J., neighborhood ended early Sunday with a hostage-taker dead and three children rescued, authorities said.

Police shot Gerald Tyrone Murphy, ending the 37-hour standoff and saving the lives of three unidentified children he had held hostage, New Jersey State Police Colonel Rick Fuentes said at a news conference Sunday morning.

Murphy, 38, a convicted sex offender, died of a gunshot wound shortly after the situation ended, Fuentes said.

The partially decomposed bodies of Carmelita Stevens, 44, believed to be Murphy’s girlfriend, and her 13-year-old son were discovered in the two-story home, authorities said.

Murphy had barricaded himself inside the house in the New Jersey state capital Friday afternoon after police were called to do a wellness check on a resident at the address, a Trenton police spokesman said Friday.

On Saturday, the Times of Trenton cited two unidentified law enforcement sources as saying police checking on the house had discovered the partially decomposed body of a woman, but pulled back when they saw he had a gun.

Authorities at Sunday’s press conference said that during hostage negotiations, Murphy told them that he had a handgun and explosives. Officials declined to say whether any explosives had yet been recovered from the home.

The newspaper also identified Stevens as the mother of the three children, ages 18, 16 and 4, Murphy took as hostages. A fifth child of Stevens, age 19, was reportedly safe at another location with relatives. Police said Murphy was not the father of any of the children.

Fuentes said hostage negotiators had maintained contact with Murphy throughout the ordeal, passing food and water through an upper window. Residents on the surrounding block were evacuated during the ordeal as a precaution.

Around 3:45 a.m. Sunday, a SWAT team stormed the home, moved to the second floor and confronted Murphy, firing a single shot to prevent further harm to the children, Fuentes said.

Murphy had an extensive criminal record, including previous arrests for robbery, a weapons offense and child endangerment, according to Mercer County prosecutor Joseph Boccini Jr. An arrest warrant had been issued in Pennsylvania for Murphy after he failed to register there as a convicted sex offender.

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After a tense, 37-hour standoff involving three children, police shot and killed 38-year-old Trenton, N.J. barricade suspect Gerald Tyrone Murphy early Sunday morning, officials announced at a news conference.

“For days, the lives of three children were placed at great risk by the presence of one individual who was their captor, Gerald Tyrone Murphy, age 38,” New Jersey State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said.

“Today, those children have been rescued from a deadly threat and horrible circumstances at the hands of an armed subject.”

Murphy, who is a registered tier-three sex offender in Pennsylvania, is accused of killing girlfriend Carmelita Stevens, 44, and her 13-year-old son about two weeks ago inside a two-story rental at 250 Grand Street.

“Our preliminary investigation has revealed that the murder of Miss Stevens took place approximately two weeks ago, in addition to the murder of the 13-year-old boy,” Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini said.

Amid the decomposing bodies, Murphy allegedly held hostage three more of Stevens’ children – a 4-year-old boy and two girls, aged 16 and 18 – during a nearly three-day standoff with police that began around 3 p.m. Friday.

“During this whole incident, the welfare of the children who were being held hostage was of paramount concern,” Fuentes said.

“We passed food and bottled water through an upper window, watching and waiting for the best opportunity to end the standoff safely. That opportunity came 37 hours after the first police response, about 3:45 a.m. this morning.”

He said TEAMS – a New Jersey State Police tactical response unit – stormed the home with flash-bang grenades after it became evident Murphy was suffering from ”a deteriorating state of mind” and likely to take further violent action.

“Preliminary information from the investigation now being conducted indicates that following our entry, a single shot was fired by our entry team to stop a threatening action against one of the children by Murphy,” Fuentes said.

Murphy died from his injures at an area hospital.

The three surviving children were rescued and were on Sunday being evaluated at a local hospital.

“There are also allegations that the 18 and 16-year-old girls were abused and assaulted during the time they were held hostage,” Bocchini said.

The children, who were not fathered by Murphy, will be evaluated by state child protective services and placed with a family member.

Trenton Police Department officers responding to the initial call on Friday rescued Stevens’ oldest son, 19, who was found hiding inside the basement.

The teen told police he had not seen his mother or sisters since April 24.

“I would say we have every reason to believe that the kids were in the room and that they were possibly restrained during that period of time,” Bocchini said.

Ignition

The barricade touched off Friday afternoon when Trenton police officers responded to the home Stevens rented on Grant Street to conduct a welfare check.

“Police further received additional information from another family member that Stevens’ two daughters had not been to school in 12 days,” Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera, Jr. said.

“When officers did not receive a response at the door and, fearing for the safety of the family, they made a forced entry into the home through a rear door and immediately smelled an odor consistent with a decomposing body. The officers also noticed maggots throughout the residence.”

He said police heard a man’s voice coming from behind the closed door of a second-floor front bedroom.

The man, later identified as Murphy, allegedly told police there was a dead person with him in the room, as well as a second body in a rear bedroom.

Officers forced their way into the rear bedroom, where investigators said they found a corpse “in an advanced stage of decomposition,” confirming Murphy’s claim.

Murphy then told police he had barricaded three children with him inside the 10-foot-by-11-foot front bedroom.

He also allegedly said he was armed with a handgun and explosives.

Police secured the residence and retreated after recovering Stevens’ oldest son.

“Our hostage negotiators maintained contact with Murphy throughout the event and our TEAMS members took up tactical positions from which they could move in quickly when needed,” Fuentes said.

Rap sheet

Murphy amassed what Bocchini called “an extensive record involving violence,” spending several stretches in Philadelphia prisons since the early 1990s on charges including aggravated assault, theft and firearms offenses.

“He has convictions for aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy,” Bocchini said.

“He has also been arrested for robbery and weapons offenses, as well as child endangerment.”

Murphy served his longest jail term in Philadelphia after pleading guilty in 2001 to sexual assault, for which he was sentenced to four to ten years’ confinement.

“Murphy, also known as ‘Skip,’ was found to have an arrest warrant out of Pennsylvania for failing to register as a sex offender,” Bocchini said.

Online sex offender registry records list Murphy’s address as of January 2011 as the Ridge Avenue Men’s Shelter in Philadelphia.

Authorities continue to investigate the protracted, complex crime, which now encompasses a police-involved shooting, as well as two homicides and a barricade situation.

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A pair of spacewalking astronauts wrapped up a hastily planned repair job on Saturday to replace a suspect coolant pump needed to keep the International Space Station at full power.

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn put on spacesuits and left the space station’s airlock shortly before 9 a.m. EDT to attempt to stem an ammonia coolant leak that cropped up on Thursday.

Over the next four hours, they installed a spare pump, then positioned themselves to check for signs of escaping ammonia ice crystals when the system was turned back on.

“No flakes,” Cassidy reported to flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Engineers will monitor the system over the next several days and beyond to make sure the pump replacement fixed the problem.

“We certainly have come a long way in identifying a potential source,” said NASA mission commentator Rob Navias as the astronauts returned to the station’s airlock. The entire spacewalk lasted 5-1/2 hours.

The station crew discovered a steady stream of ammonia flakes flowing away from the far left side of the station’s exterior frame on Thursday. Flight controllers spent the next 48 hours diagnosing the problem and coming up with potential solutions.

Engineers believed the leak most likely was coming from in or around a 260-pound (118-kg) pump that pushes ammonia throughout the system. The coolant dissipates heat from electronics in space station’s solar-powered electrical system.

The station can be reconfigured to compensate for a system shutdown, but if a second problem should occur, that likely would mean a cutback in power available for the experiments.

The $100 billion station, which flies about 250 miles above Earth, is a research laboratory for biomedical, physics, astronomical and other experiments, as well as for technology development and demonstrations.

On Sunday, station commander Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to lead the international outpost, turns over the helm to Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. Hadfield, Marshburn and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, who have been aboard the station since December, are scheduled to depart on Monday.

Their replacements – NASA’s Karen Nyberg, Italy’s Luca Parmitano and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin – are due to launch on May 28.

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A grisly, unsolved triple homicide may have involved the Boston Marathon bombers, according to “mounting evidence,” say authorities in Massachusetts.

According to ABC News, officials have said preliminary forensic tests have linked the brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to the scene of a 2011 triple murder in Waltham, Mass.

Brendan Mess, 25, was found dead in his home alongside Erik Weissman, 31, and Raphael Tenken, 37, both of Cambridge. All three had their throats slit and were covered in marijuana.

Officials at the time claimed the deaths were drug-related, due to Mess’ prior convictions. Sources told the Boston Globe that Tenken also was in the drug trade. Investigators found five pounds of marijuana dumped on their bodies and $5,000 in cash in the house.

This theory did not, however, hold up. There was no evidence of forced entry at Mess’ home. Law enforcement officials told ABC News the new forensic evidence may place the Tsarnaev brothers around Mess’ residence on September 11, 2011, the day of the incident.

Mess at one point lived with Tamerlan. Both trained in boxing and martial arts. Tamerlan had once described Mess as his best friend, though it was known the ethnic Chechen increasingly discouraged Mess’ lifestyle choices.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan declined to comment on the new revelations, as did the public defender representing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

All three victims had their throats slashed with either an ice pick or a knife, each with such great force behind it that they were nearly decapitated.

Officials cautioned that until more definitive DNA testing is complete, it is still too early to consider bringing an indictment against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who officials said has admitted his role in the Boston Marathon bombings that left three dead and 260 more injured. Tamerlan, his older brother, was killed in a shootout with police days after the attack. Dzhokhar was subsequently apprehended.

More to come.

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An armed man with multiple hostages remained barricaded inside a Trenton, New Jersey, house on Saturday after a standoff with law enforcement negotiators overnight, police said.

Trenton police declined to say how many hostages were inside the home with the man, who has been barricaded there since Friday afternoon, or explain their relationship to him.

The Times of Trenton cited two unidentified law enforcement sources as saying police officers checking on the house had discovered the partially decomposed body of the man’s girlfriend, but pulled back when they saw he had a gun.

The newspaper also reported that one of the woman’s children was killed and that the man was holding three more of her children inside the house. A fifth child, age 19, was reportedly safe at another location with relatives.

Trenton Police Lieutenant Edelmiro Gonzalez told Reuters late on Friday that officers responding for a wellness check on someone at the house on Friday afternoon had encountered a man who barricaded himself inside.

He declined to confirm the girlfriend’s death or whether anyone else in the house had been killed. The identity of the suspect has not been released.

State police said tactical units, including hostage negotiators, canine units and SWAT teams, were on the scene.

FBI Special Agent Barbara Woodruff said federal investigators and hostage negotiators were helping state police.

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The murder case prosecutors hope to bring against accused Cleveland abductor Ariel Castro, who police say induced several miscarriages by beating and starving one young woman, will be complicated by a lack of physical evidence and medical records, legal experts say.

The case consequently could hinge on whether Castro’s three victims, whom he is accused of holding captive for nearly a decade, take the stand and testify that victim Michelle Knight was pregnant and miscarried, according to Thaddeus Hoffmeister, a law professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio.

“Their testimony will be crucial. You will need them to testify and that is going to be challenging based on how they were treated and kept for such a long time,” Hoffmeister said.

“They have got to testify that A, they were pregnant and B, that this guy’s actions caused the termination of that pregnancy.”

Knight, 32, told police that Castro caused her to have at least five miscarriages after he kidnapped her in 2002 and kept her in a dungeon-like home in a low-income neighborhood of Cleveland.

Castro, 52, is accused of kidnapping and raping the three women over a period of around a decade.

Ohio is one of 38 states to have a fetal homicide law on the books, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The law in Ohio makes it a crime to murder a person “who is or was carried in the womb of another.”

The state’s fetal homicide law was used in 2011 against Dominic Holt-Reid who tried to force his girlfriend to get an abortion at gunpoint in Ohio. Holt-Reid pleaded guilty to an attempted murder charge and is serving 13 years in prison.

The most high-profile fetal homicide trial in the United States occurred in 2004, when Scott Peterson was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and unborn son and sentenced to death in California.

On Thursday, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty, who has jurisdiction over all felony cases for Cleveland, said he intends to seek aggravated murder charges against Castro once the case is formally transferred to his office. Aggravated murder charges could carry the death penalty.

BUILDING A CASE WITHOUT MEDICAL RECORDS

Unlike the Holt-Reid and Peterson cases and most other fetal homicide cases, the one that prosecutors will attempt to build against Castro will be without prenatal care and medical records showing the woman was pregnant and miscarried, said Hoffmeister.

“Prosecutors don’t need a body to prosecute you, but a corpse helps,” Hoffmeister said. “Arguably, you could say that this person was never pregnant. It’s just her word that she says that she was pregnant.”

Ric Simmons, a law professor at Ohio State University, said if the three victims take the stand and corroborate their accounts of the miscarriages, prosecutors “will not have a problem proving” a murder case against Castro.

“Frankly, I think it could fly. It seems like they have the witnesses they need to establish this. The legal requirements for murder are set out here so I am not surprised they are doing this,” Simmons said.

Knight, along with Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus and a 6-year-old girl, escaped on Monday from Castro’s house. Police said Castro used ropes and chains to hold the women captive initially, then allowed them more freedom within the house. The women were repeatedly raped and beaten, police said.

Berry, 27, disappeared in 2003, the day before her 17th birthday. DeJesus, 23, vanished in 2004.

Dr Bill Manion, who has provided expert medical testimony in a number of criminal cases throughout the United States, said it will be difficult to prove the victims had a miscarriage unless there was an injury to the cervix that caused a scar.

“They have to see if there was any trauma to the cervix,” he said.

During a typical miscarriage, a women loses some blood as the fetus is expelled and the uterus contracts, Manion said. In young women, bone marrow then replaces the lost blood very quickly, he added, leaving no signs of miscarriage.

Investigators will also likely be searching for any fetal remains such as tissue or bones on the property, Manion added.

“If the fetus was not old enough to have bones, they may not find anything,” he said.

Another key factor in determining the outcome of the case against Castro, if it goes to trial, will be the state of mind of the women when they take the stand, according to Hoffmeister.

Given the horrible circumstances that the women reportedly endured, the defense will need to treat them with “kid gloves” if they take the stand, he said.

Defense attorneys may want to stress the fact that the victims “were treated arguably sometimes like POWs (prisoners of war), if not worse, which may impact their ability to remember things,” Hoffmeister said. “You would want to do that very delicately.”

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Katherine Russell, the widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has hired a criminal defense attorney with experience handling terrorism cases.

Amato A. DeLuca, who has been representing Russell since Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar, were identified as suspects in the marathon attacks, announced Wednesday that Joshua Dratel has joined Russell’s defense team.

Dratel is president of the Wall Street law firm Dratel & Mysliwiec, P.C. In a bio on the firm’s website, Dratel lists his fields of expertise as terrorism, national security and violent crime charges, among others.

DeLuca’s Providence, R.I., law firm, DeLuca & Weizenbaum Ltd., handles mostly medical malpractice and personal injury civil suits.

Federal investigators want to know what Russell knew, if anything, about her husband and his brother’s plans to detonate two homemade bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line.

Three people were killed and 264 others injured in the April 15 explosions, including a more than a dozen who suffered amputations. The Tsarnaevs are also suspected of killing an MIT police officer.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police April 18, just hours after the FBI released pictures of the suspects. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is recovering from gunshot wounds at a federal medical facility, charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

DeLuca said Russell, who married Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2010, had no knowledge of the plot and is assisting with the investigation. The FBI would not confirm to the Associated Press that Russell is cooperating.

“Katie plans to continue to meet with investigators, part of a series of meetings over many hours where she has answered questions,” DeLuca said.

Russell has been staying at her parents’ home in North Kingstown, R.I., since Tsarnaev was killed, along with the couple’s 2-year-old daughter.

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Boston police commissioner Ed Davis will be on Capitol Hill on Thursday to testify before a congressional committee about the Boston Marathon bombings.

Before leaving Boston on Wednesday, Davis spoke to reporters at Logan International Airport.

Davis added, “The FBI, the intelligence agencies – I think everybody in America is looking into what they did before this happened, to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But we have to wait until the facts are on the table.”

Davis planned to tell the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee that additional undercover officers, surveillance cameras and better communication between different law enforcement agencies are needed to increase security at high-profile public events, according to a copy of his planned remarks obtained by the Associated Press.

Footage from cameras near the marathon finish line on Boylston Street helped identify the two suspects, brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The former was killed in a shootout with police three days after the bombings; Dzhokhar is being held on terrorism charges.

“Images from cameras do not lie. They do not forget,” Davis was expected to testify. “They can be viewed by a jury as evidence of what occurred. These efforts are not intended to chill or stifle free speech, but rather to protect the integrity and freedom of that speech and to protect the rights of victims and suspects alike.”

At the same time, Davis encouraged continued protection of citizens’ privacy rights and civil liberties.

“I do not endorse actions that move Boston and our nation into a police state mentality, with surveillance cameras attached to every light pole in the city,” Davis planned to say. “We do not and cannot live in a protective enclosure because of the actions of extremists who seek to disrupt our way of life.”

As for questions about how much U.S. authorities considered Tamerlan Tsarnaev to be a possible threat, Davis said more analysis is needed.

“The facts and circumstances of who knew what, at what time, are playing themselves out. We don’t have the final report on that,” Davis said Wednesday. “But to date, I am satisfied with what’s happened.

“We are going to learn a lot about this. And I believe there is going to be a lot of criticism as there is always is after an event of this magnitude. Right now, we need to get the facts on the table … and make assessments that are based upon evidence.”

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An Arizona jury found Jodi Arias guilty on Wednesday of first-degree murder in the death of her ex-boyfriend in a sensational capital case that has snared media attention since January. Arias teared up as the verdict was announced. Family members of victim Travis Alexander embraced each other in the courtroom.

Arias, 32, could face the death penalty now that she is convicted of murdering 30-year-old Alexander, whose body was found in the shower of his suburban Phoenix home in June 2008. He had been shot in the face, stabbed multiple times and his throat had been slashed.

Arias has admitted to killing Alexander, but said it was in self-defense after he attacked her because she had dropped his camera while taking photos of him in the shower.

The jury reached its verdict on the third full day of deliberations. Judge Sherry Stephens, who gave them the case on Friday afternoon, had instructed jurors that they could consider the charges of first- and second-degree murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter, and that they should reach a unanimous verdict. First-degree murder requires proof of premeditation.

The trial, which began in early January and was punctuated by graphic testimony and evidence including a sex tape, was streamed live on the Internet and drew widespread media attention.

During the trial, the court heard how the petite, dark-haired Arias met and began dating Alexander, a businessman and motivational speaker, in 2006.

During 18 days of often gripping and salacious testimony, Arias said that she and Alexander continued to have sex despite their break-up from a relationship that was marked by emotional and physical abuse.

Arias said Alexander had made her feel “like a prostitute” and that he kicked and attempted to choke her, although she admitted never reporting the alleged abuse to the police, seeking medical treatment or documenting it in her journal.

Defense attorney Kirk Nurmi said Arias had snapped in the “sudden heat of passion” in the moments between a final photograph she took showing Alexander alive and taking a shower and a subsequent picture showing him covered in his own blood.

ARIAS PORTRAYED AS MANIPULATIVE

Prosecutor Juan Martinez painted a different picture of Arias, portraying her as manipulative and prone to jealousy in previous relationships, and said she had meticulously planned to kill Alexander.

“Nothing indicates that this is anything less than a slaughter,” he told jurors in his summing up on Friday, asking them to return a verdict of felony first-degree murder.

Martinez accused Arias of bringing the pistol used in the killing, which has not been recovered, with her from California, and said she rented a car, removed its license plate and bought gasoline cans and fuel to conceal her journey to the Phoenix suburbs to kill Alexander.

Martinez said that Arias lied after the killing to deflect any suspicion that she had been involved in his death, leaving a voicemail on Alexander’s cellphone, sending irises to his grandmother and telling detectives she was not at the crime scene before changing her story.

The jury had more than 100 questions for Arias. They grilled her on her claims that her mind went blank after she shot Alexander, and wanted to know why she had not called emergency responders – questions she struggled to answer.

The defense called a psychologist who testified that Arias’ memory lapses stemmed from post-traumatic stress as a result of Alexander’s alleged abuse and the killing itself – claims disputed by prosecutors.

In closing arguments, Martinez told the jury Alexander had sent an instant message weeks before his death saying he was “extremely afraid” of Arias because of her “stalking behavior.”

Nurmi also reminded the jury that Arias was charged with murder and not with lying.

“Did she lie? Of course she did, but that’s not in your verdict instructions,” he said.

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Worcester’s police chief today publicly pleaded with officials to end a dragged out debate over where to bury accused Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed three weeks ago. 

Chief Gary Gemme told reporters gathered outside the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, where Tsarnaev’s remains are being refrigerated, that he condemns the actions of the accused terrorist, but insisted a decision must be made on where to put his remains.

“I understand the concern that people have over the potential negative attention that providing a burial sight will bring, however, we need a solution,” he said. “We are not barbarians, we bury the dead. So I am publicly appealing to those with authority to provide a burial sight do so and do so quickly.”

The funeral director’s decision to accept the body, Gemme said, has put the local police department “into the unwanted position of having to assist the family with locating a burial sight.”

“Unfortunately we are still without a burial sight, and there (are) no immediate prospects,” he said. “The police department is expending resources that could be used for other needs in our community.”

The city has reportedly spent as much as $30,000 for overtime in police security since the body arrived last week.

Protesters have demanded Tsarnaev’s body be sent to Russia, but Gemme said the suspect’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, won’t allow that.

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Gina DeJesus, one of three missing women rescued from captivity Monday, has returned to her family’s Cleveland home amidst an outpouring of support from the community. The crowd gathered outside her family’s home erupted in cheers as Gina, wearing a yellow hooded sweatshirt, emerged from a minivan and was quickly ushered into the house. Her family members embraced each other in jubilation after her arrival.

“I want to thank everybody that believed,” DeJesus’ mother said to the crowd. “Even the ones that doubted,  I want to thank them the most – they’re the ones that made me stronger.”

DeJesus disappeared from her Cleveland neighborhood in 2004 at age 14, just one year after 17-year-old Amanda Berry was abducted from the same area. She was last seen using a pay phone on her way home from school. The house where she was held captive with Berry and Michele Knight, another missing woman, was just two blocks on Seymour Ave. from DeJesus’ aunt’s home on the same street. The women were found by police after a neighbor helped Berry break free from the front door and call 911 Monday evening.

DeJesus, now 23, was reunited with her family Monday night, which never lost hope that Gina was still alive.

“Our family is very strong in our faith and never once doubted that we would be reunited with her alive,” Figaro told Metro Tuesday.

DeJesus, Berry, Berry’s 6-year-old daughter and Knight were all in good health.

“Everybody recognized her, and she recognized everyone,” Figaro said of DeJesus after seeing her for the first time in almost ten years.

“[Monday] evening, I was in such a state of disbelief,” Sheila Figaro, a cousin of Gina DeJesus, told Metro. “There were all those thoughts that race through one’s mind – is she right under your nose? Has she been taken to another country? But, you just never know. To find out she was blocks two away from her own family…

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  PHOTOS: The discovery of missing Cleveland girls 10 years later

52-year-old Ariel Castro and his brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were taken into custody Monday. They are expected to be charged Wednesday, police said. Investigators have found chains and ropes in the house believed to have been used to restrain the women.  No human remains have been found in the house, police said. There is no evidence yet that Castro was involved in other kidnappings.

Earlier Wednesday, Amanda Berry arrived with her 6-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, to her sister’s Cleveland home. Her sister, Beth Serrano, addressed a frenzied crowd of reporters, asking for privacy as their family tried to recover.

“We want to thank the public and media for their support over the years,” Serrano said. “Our family would request privacy so my sister, niece and I have time to recover. Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statements.”

Follow Cassandra Garrison on Twitter: @CassieAtMetro

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King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia will be in the city Friday and Saturday, according to a news release.

“They will tour the Barnes Foundation on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and visit Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and the American Swedish Historical Museum,” according to the news release.

Mayor Michael Nutter will welcome the Swedish royals on the 375th anniversary of the founding of New Sweden colony.

On Saturday, the royal couple will attend a symposium on “Making It in America” at the Independence Seaport Museum with the speaker of parliament of Finland, Eero Olavi Heinäluoma, the release said.

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Amanda Berry’s sister has addressed the public to ask for privacy as Berry, who has been gone for more than 10 years, gets reacquainted with her family in Cleveland.

“We want to thank the public and media for their support over the years,” Beth Serrano said to a large gathering of reporters outside her Cleveland home.

Police officials had told reporters that Amanda Berry would be making a statement shortly after she arrived at the house, but it was her sister who came out to address the crowd instead.

Holding back tears, Serrano added, “Our family would request privacy so my sister, niece and I have time to recover. Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statements.”

Berry was able to escape the Cleveland house where she had been held captive since her disappearance at age 17 in 2003. Inside the same home, police found two other missing people: Gina DeJesus who disappeared at age 14 in 2004, and Michele Knight, who went missing at age 20 in 2002.

Berry gave birth to a daughter, Jocelyn, while in captivity, who is now 6 years old. The girls’ accused captor, 52-year-old Ariel Castro, is presumed to be the child’s father.

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  View Slideshow

  PHOTOS: The discovery of missing Cleveland girls 10 years later

The city in Cleveland rejoiced at news that the girls, who were the focus of intense media coverage after their disappearances, were found alive in good health. They have been reunited with their family members since Monday night, who never believed the girls were dead.

Castro and his brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were taken into custody Monday. They are expected to be charged Wednesday, police said.

This incredible drama began to unfold Monday night when a neighbor heard Berry’s screams and pleas to be let out of the house. That neighbor, Charles Ramsey, helped kick through the front door, freeing Berry who then made a desperate call to 911. Investigators have since found ropes and chains they believe were used to restrain the girls in the house. They have not found human remains, fueling speculation into whether Castro was involved in other kidnappings.

Berry’s mother died of heart failure two years after her daughter went missing — people close to the family maintain she died of a “broken heart.” She went to her grave convinced her daughter was still alive, despite a reading from a psychic who told her Amanda was dead.

“It tormented her because she knew she was alive, but her heart gave out,” former Cleveland investigative reporter Duane Pohlman recalled to Metro. “There was something different about her mom that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. She was insistent, almost obsessive, that her daughter was still alive, almost to the point of wanting to convince me.”

Amanda Berry’s sister joined her at the hospital after her rescue Monday night. She has also reconnected with her grandmother in Tennessee by phone.

Gina DeJesus was also reunited with her family. Her cousin, Sheila Figaro, said the family never lost hope that Gina would be found one day. The house where the girls were held for more than a decade was just two blocks from DeJesus’ aunt, who lived on the same street.

“There were all those thoughts that race through one’s mind – is she right under your nose? Has she been taken to another country?” Figaro said to Metro. “But, you just never know. To find out she was blocks two away from her own family…”

Follow Cassandra Garrison on Twitter: @CassieAtMetro

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Boston Mayor Thomas Menino won’t allow marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev to be buried in the city, his spokeswoman said.

“It would be disrespectful to our residents to accommodate this individual,” Dot Joyce, Menino’s press secretary, told the Boston Globe on Tuesday.

Tsarnaev, 26, died in a shootout with police on April 18, three days after allegedly detonating two bombs near the Boston Marathon finish line, killing three people and injuring 264 others. His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar, was captured the next night after a manhunt that virtually shut down the Boston area.

The brothers are suspected of killing an MIT police officer, Sean Collier, before leading police on a pursuit to Watertown which ended with Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead. The medical examiner found the cause of death to be gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to the head and torso. Authorities said Dzhokhar ran over Tamerlan with a stolen SUV while fleeing.

The older Tsarnaev’s body is being held at a Worcester funeral home, while the search for a burial plot continues. Several cemeteries have declined, according to Peter Stefan, owner of the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors.

The city manager of Cambridge, where the Tsarnaevs lived, said the community would be “adversely impacted” if the suspect were buried there.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said Monday finding a gravesite was “the family’s issue,” not the responsibility of the state or federal government.

Tsarnaev’s parents, ethnic Chechens who returned to southern Russia several years ago, have suggested in various interviews and reports that their son should be buried in Cambridge or returned to Russia.

A Worcester resident, William Breault, started a fund to have Tsarnaev’s body sent to Russia, hoping to prevent a burial in Massachusetts.

Worcester police Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst said the city’s police chief met with the funeral home director Tuesday, and expects to have a resolution soon.

“They’re quite confident that there will be a conclusion to settle this matter within the next couple of days,” Hazelhurst told the Globe. “The chief’s function today was to get the parties involved to meet, discuss, and try to find a solution to the problem. … I think all options are on the table right now.”

“The whole situation is unprecedented,” said David Walkinshaw, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Funeral Directors Association. “The challenge here is that there’s no way to demand a cemetery allow for a burial to take place.”

With additional reporting by Reuters. Follow Metro Boston on Twitter: @MetroBos

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One Fund Boston administrator Kenneth Feinberg said the charity hasn’t raised enough money to fully compensate the Boston Marathon bombing victims.

“There’s not enough money here to pay everybody,” Feinberg said at a town hall meeting Tuesday. “When you look at the horror that happened here in Boston — the horror, the number of deaths, the number of horrible physical injuries, the number of people still in the hospital today — I assure you based on everything I’ve done in the past, including 9/11, there isn’t enough money to pay everybody who justifiably expects it or needs it. There’s not enough money.”

So far, the One Fund Boston has collected more than $29 million in cash and pledges. Feinberg, a Brockton native, now faces what he said were “choices that come, I think, right out of the Bible in determining who gets what.”

Drawing on his experience overseeing funds that compensated victims after events such as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the theater shooting in Aurora, Col., Feinberg ran public meetings this week that were part therapy session and part wealth-management seminar.

His main goal was getting input on how he should resolve difficult questions such as whether One Fund will pay benefits to victims who require mental healthcare — as the Aurora fund did not — or whether to give rich and poor victims the same benefits. Means-testing could provide more fairness, but could also take more time, Feinberg said.

Standing outside the Boston Public Library afterward, just steps from where the explosions took place, Feinberg said running the other funds taught him to focus on outcomes.

“You have to hold these town hall meetings, you have to tell people what you can do and what you can’t do,” he said. “People want certainty.”

Feinberg has already proposed that payments be prioritized for the families of the dead and the most seriously injured. He plans to distribute all the money in the fund by June 30, a goal set when he was asked by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to take the job.

A fund organizer, Karen Kaplan, president of the Hill Holliday advertising firm, said One Fund was set up in part to avoid the compensation confusion that sprang up after the shootings in Newtown, Conn., in December that left 20 students and six teachers dead.

Newtown officials identified more than 60 funds raising money on behalf of victims or projects after the tragedy. Families of some mass-shooting victims worried some funds were holding on to money unnecessarily and suggested creating a national fund for future incidents.

Some of those proponents praised Feinberg’s Boston efforts.

“It’s exactly what should happen,” said Scott Larimer, whose son John died in Aurora. “You’re going to use Ken Feinberg’s formula for distribution. It’s the money donated by the American public for sympathy and compassion, and here’s your money.”

Tuesday’s meeting drew a number of bombing victims, who thanked Feinberg for his work.

One was Wayne Gilchist of Cambridge, who showed his two heavily bandaged wrists and hands at the meeting. One was injured during the bombing and the second in a seizure he said was brought on by psychological distress after the attack.

“It’s putting so much stress on me,” he said. One hand was broken “because of what I saw right outside this door.”

Later he repeated one of Feinberg’s points, that funds should be distributed quickly.

“It’s got to be in a fast manner,” he said. “The families are suffering. I’m suffering.”

Also at the meeting was Bentley Mattier, who said he flew back to Boston from Atlanta to help his family after an aunt lost her leg in the attack. Like Gilchrist, he said sooner is better.

“I’d like for my aunt to be compensated immediately. Those hospital bills are coming in immediately,” he added.

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The father of one of the two Kazakh students charged with obstructing the Boston Marathon bombing investigation is fighting to have his son released.

Amir Ismagulov told the Associated Press that his son, 19-year-old Azamat Tazhayakov,”would never intend to do anything bad to people in the United States.”

Tazhayakov and 19-year-old Dias Kadyrbayev, who’s also from Kazakhstan, are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice by conspiring to destroy, conceal and cover up tangible evidence in the case.

Federal authorities say the two UMass Dartmouth students removed a backpack containing hollowed-out fireworks and a laptop from marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s dorm room three days after the explosions, after the FBI released photos of Tsarnaev and his brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

The brothers are accused of detonating two homemade bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15. Three people were killed and 264 hurt. The pair also allegedly killed an MIT police officer April 18 before leading authorities on a pursuit to Watertown. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in the confrontation with police.

Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev allegedly threw Tsarnaev’s backpack in the Dumpster at their New Bedford apartment. Authorities later retrieved it from a landfill. His lawyer says Tazhayakov turned the laptop over to investigators and has been cooperating.

The two students face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. They also could be deported for staying in the U.S. with invalid student visas.

Tazhayakov’s father told the Boston Globe he traveled to Boston from Kazakhstan on April 25, five days after his son was arrested on immigration violations. Ismagulov said Tazhayakov repeatedly told him that he had nothing to do with the bombing and didn’t know Tsarnaev was involved.

According to Ismagulov, Tazhaykov said Tsarnaev is “not a human” if he was responsible for the attacks.

Ismagulov said he’s laid flowers at the makeshift memorial in Copley Square dedicated to the bombing victims at his son’s request, who asked him “to express condolences to innocent people who were hurt and killed.”

Tazhayakov and Kadyrnayev are due back in court May 14.

A third UMass Dartmouth student, 19-year-old Robel Phillipos of Cambridge, is charged with willfully making materially false statements to federal law enforcement officials during a terrorism investigation. He was released on bail Monday and will serve house arrest until his trial.

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