13-year-old has had 75 run-ins with police in Metro Vancouver

METRO VANCOUVER — A 13-year-old boy who slashed a man with a knife because he wouldn’t give him a cigarette has been in court and involved with police 75 times in the past year.
The youth, who has been in and out of foster care, was on probation when the latest attack occurred aboard SkyTrain near Columbia Station, according to the Transit Police Service.
He was charged Tuesday with assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon in connection with the attack, which left a 23-year-old Ontario man with severe cuts to his left hand. The man was heading home after watching a Canucks game at a Vancouver restaurant when he refused to give the boy a cigarette and was slashed.
People on the train who witnessed the attack pushed the emergency intercom and requested immediate assistance. As the train came into Columbia Station, people from the train pointed out the youth to a SkyTrain attendant, who got the boy off the train and then called for police. Another SkyTrain attendant began first aid on the victim and then took him to hospital.
Transit police spokesman Tom Seaman said the youth needs help.
“What’s happened in his life to have him blow up so easily and so quickly in anger?” he asked.
The youth, who was being held at the Burnaby Youth Detention Centre, cannot be named because he’s a young offender.
But police say he’s no stranger to them.
At the time of his arrest, the youth was breaching curfew and other probation restrictions, including possessing and owning a weapon, police said. He was convicted on six charges in 2008 and was scheduled to to court on four outstanding issues in Surrey.
Most of the incidents involved violent offences with weapons such as knives, or were alcohol-related, transit police said.
“This young man has been in foster care for a good period of his life,” said Police Chief Ward Clapham.
“It just breaks my heart. On the one hand this is not acceptable, this type of behaviour is a very serious crime. On the other, wow, here’s a 13-year-old, look at his record and the level of violence ... and he continues to slip through the cracks.”
Clapham said the incident underscored the need for the community to pull together. He said he was calling on the 21 municipalities in Metro Vancouver to help people like this boy — either through treatment or jail — before the situation gets any worse.
“This is real, it’s happening more and more often,” Clapham said. “We as police can only do so much. ... No blame, let’s get our heads together and deal with it.”
Ministry of Children and Family Development spokesman Kelly Gleeson would not give details of the youth’s past, or even confirm that he was in foster care, due to privacy concerns.
“That being said, any youth — in care or not — that has repeated dealings with the youth justice system is obviously of concern,” Gleeson said in an e-mail. more

Brooks County teen arrested for burning 3 cats

Authorities charged a Brooks County teen with aggravated cruelty to animals following the burning death of two cats and the disfiguration of a third.
Brooks County Sheriff Mike Dewey announced on Monday that 17-year-old Cory Ward has been charged with three counts of aggravated cruelty to animals.
Ward is accused in the death of two cats and the disfiguration of a third cat in the area of Eagle Run Trailer Park.
On December 20, 2008, area resident Jim Ragan found two cats that were severely burned.
Both cats were taken to Baytree Animal Hospital.
On December 22, 2008, Mr. Ragan found a third cat that had also been burned and had two broken legs.
Two of the cats were taken to the University of Florida Veterinary Hospital where they later died.
The third cat continues to improve at home with surgery scheduled in the next few weeks.
"After extensive investigation and follow-up on leads provided to us by concerned citizens we were able to solve this case," said Sheriff Mike Dewey. "We appreciate the many individuals who came forward with information and offers to help with the medical costs and the reward money."
Sheriff Dewey quickly condemned cruelty against animals.
"Individuals who commit such heinous acts as the burning of these innocent animals, if not caught and held accountable for these acts may go on to commit more serious crimes in the future," he said.
Aggravated animal cruelty is a felony and carries a penalty of one to five years in prisonand a maximum fine of $15,000 plus restitution.
Currently, medical costs for the treatment of the three cats have totalled almost $16,000.

Hearing begins for teacher in Alex Barton case

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Teacher Wendy Portillo's attorney said Monday his client admits to making a lapse in judgment, but thinks the loss of an exemplary career is far too great a penalty.
Portillo is appealing her one-year unpaid suspension she got in November for allegedly holding a class poll to see whether then-5-year-old Alex Barton could stay in class. Alex was being tested for a type of autism at the time.
St. Lucie County Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon testified briefly before the lunch break that he considered firing Portillo for the incident, but took into account her 12-year career in the district.
“The younger the child, the more this issue becomes an impressionable one. The learning environment was broken in this particular action,” Lannon said.
Sue Ranew, assistant superintendent of human resources for the district, said she and Lannon had lost respect and confidence for Portillo, along with other students, parents and members of the community. She said parents had requested their children not be placed in Portillo's classroom should Portillo be returned to class.
The hearing is expected to take several days to conclude. Both Lannon and Ranew said they believe Portillo violated the code of ethics several times because of the incident.
“The incident of May 21 was very egregious on the part of Ms. Portillo,” Ranew said. “The amount of notoriety has reduced her effectiveness as an educator in the classroom at this time.”

Woman accused of having sex with 12-year-old boy

DAYTON - The Montgomery County Prosecutor’s office has approved a rape charge against a 55-year-old woman who allegedly had sex with a neighborhood 12-year-old boy on her birthday.
Gloria J. Murphy, 55, of 5440 Rawlings Drive, was arrested at 8 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 30, by Dayton police after the boy notified an adult he had sex with Murphy, according to police.

Gloria Murphy, 55
The encounter happened late Wednesday, Jan. 28 — Murphy’s birthday — and lasted into the early hours the next day, Patrick Welsh said.
Murphy did not force the boy to have sex, but since the he is younger than 13, it is considered rape, Welsh said.
Police are not releasing any more details to protect the child, Welsh said. Murphy is in jail on $25,000 bond and is expected to appear in court on Feb. 9 at 3:30 p.m.
A background check found Murphy has no previous arrests or criminal conviction in Montgomery County.

Arrest Warrant Issued for Jason Caffey Over Unpaid Child Support Claims

Chicago Bulls forward, stands accused of failing to pay child support. The child support payment battle for Caffey has been going on since 2007. Jason Caffey is said to have ten children, with eight different women. Caffey attempted to seek a court order from a bankruptcy judge, to protect him from child support lawsuits from mothers. Per reports, it is alleged that Caffey owes more than $200,000 in unpaid child support.Jason Caffey, a former basketball player, has played for Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks. During his basketball career, it is reported that Caffey had multi-million dollar playing contracts.Lorunda Brown is a mother of Jason Caffey's six year old son, the arrest warrant is in direct connection with her lawsuit against Caffey for unpaid child support and unpaid legal fees.Unpaid child support woes are not news in the sports world.

In recent months, several high profile athletes and former multi-million contract holders have been accused of failing to pay child support.Evander Holyfield, former heavyweight boxing champion, has been accused of failing to pay child support. This claim came after reports that Holyfield Atlanta mansion was in risk of foreclosure. The $10 million Atlanta mansion Holyfield owned was on the auction block due to non-payments and his child's mother accused him of failing to pay two months of child support.

Matt Leinart, an Arizona Cardinal's quarterback, has also had child support battles in recent past. July of 2007, Leinart and his ex-girlfriend went to court to battle out child support payments and accusations over who does more of parenting for the former couples son.Brynn Cameron originally claimed to require $30,000 a month for her son with Leinart. Matt Leinart however challenged her claims and a judge ordered him to pay $15,000 a month instead. The former couple has also had additional court visits in order to hash out a custody agreement. Leinart wanted a judge to permit him more time with his son and custody arrangements. more

State cracks down on late payments

A new central database could allow the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office to more effectively pursue enforcement measures for outstanding child support debts, including the suspension of hunting, fishing and driver’s licenses.As part of a new pilot program unfolding in eight Indiana counties, the Child Support Division of the Prosecutor’s Office will cooperate with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, using the database to enforce suspensions of recreational licenses.The License Suspension Statute, which allows the Child Support Division to suspend driver’s licenses to enforce payments, has been on Indiana’s books for years. The statute also permits the suspension of recreational licenses, but until recently there was no way to enforce the suspensions in an organized fashion, said Bill Welch, deputy prosecutor and supervisor for the Child Support Division.Before, if the court suspended a hunting or fishing license, nothing could prevent the offender from simply getting a new one, Welch said. The new database allows the Department of Natural Resources to keep track of license suspensions statewide.Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Phase I of the pilot program in October 2008. Modeled after successful efforts in Maine, Washington, Tennessee and Mississippi, the goal of the program is to increase the state’s child support collections, according to a press release from the governor’s office. The first phase used the statewide child support computer system to target the most extreme cases, in which non-custodial parents owed at least $25,000 and hadn’t made payments for a year or more. The governor’s office estimated this applied to about 4,000 cases in the eight participating counties.The implementation of Phase I made little difference in child support payments in Monroe County, Welch said, because almost all of the offenders were either already facing felony charges, were incarcerated for other reasons or already had their licenses suspended. Of the 50 Monroe County cases extracted in Phase I, only five didn’t involve these issues. Four out of five reached an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office.“The actual effectiveness of that program in getting child support paid was very limited, but what it did allow us to do was work out the bugs,” Welch said.By the end of January, the Child Support Division was scheduled to proceed to Phase II, which targets cases with lower debts. Welch said the computer singled out about 175 cases for Phase II.The Child Support Division has reviewed each case and will soon send out letters advising offenders that their driver’s and recreational licenses could be suspended if they do not contact the Prosecutor’s Office.“If they contact us at any point in that process, the license suspension stops because we would much rather have the child support than suspend anybody’s license,” Welch said. “The person has lots of chances.”Welch said suspending driver’s licenses could be counterproductive if it prevents the offender from getting to work, but the suspension of recreational licenses provides incentive to start making payments. “It does work. There have been occasions where we have threatened to take the license and get a court order and they have, in fact, come up with the money to pay their child support,” Welch said.The Department of Child Services estimated that in 2008, Indiana collected $580 million in current and overdue child support payments, a $45 million increase from 2007. more

Columbus man headed to prison for not paying child support

Failure to pay child support will send a Columbus man to prison.
Andre B. Phillips, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal non-support Wednesday in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court. Assistant Lawrence County Prosecutor Mack Anderson said at one point Phillips owed $4,900 for the care of one child.
Judge Charles Cooper sentenced him to eight months in prison and ordered him to pay the arrearage. Phillips told Cooper he wanted to go prison and get his sentence “over and done with” even though it would create a hardship for him.
“The situation is, it got me messed up,” he said. “My wife is disabled. I was her caretaker. I know I have a son. I have eight children and I do the best to take care of all eight children,” Phillips said. “I feel like I’m being shafted but I got to do what I got to do to be home with my wife.”
Also Wednesday, Curtis Adkins, 31, of 411 Rear Third Ave., Chesapeake, pleaded guilty to one count of deception to obtain a dangerous drug.
Adkins is accused of getting one prescription for oxycodone and then going back a second time and telling the doctor the first prescription had been destroyed in a fire when in fact that was not the case.
Cooper sentenced him to four years community controlled sanctions under intensive supervised probation (CCS/ISP), also known as probation, and ordered him to successfully complete a rehabilitation program at the STAR Criminal Justice Center.
Brandi Beckleheimer, 21, of Ashland, Ky., was sentenced to four years CCS/ISP after a recent guilty plea to a theft from the elderly charge.
Judge D. Scott Bowling also ordered her to pay $2,200 restitution within the next two months. Beckleheimer was a home health care worker who was accused of stealing from an elderly client.
John R. Lindbeck, 66, of 503 Third St., South Point, admitted he violated his probation after he was caught drinking. Bowling sentenced him to four years in prison. Lindbeck was on probation for an earlier domestic violence conviction.
Ernest S. Stapleton, 28, of 3032 S. Fourth St., Ironton, admitted he violated his probation by failing to report to his probation officer as requested. Cooper sentenced him to nine months in prison.
Stapleton’s attorney, Derick Fisher, said Stapleton was not going to make excuses for violating his parole but pointed out part of the problem was that Stapleton was homeless for a period of time and had been ill.
“He wants to face the music,” Fisher said. He asked that Stapleton be allowed a brief furlough so he could spend time with his infant son before being sent to prison.
But Assistant Lawrence County Prosecutor Mack Anderson pointed out that while he has sympathy for a new father wanting to spend time with his child, Stapleton got into trouble by not cooperating with authorities.
Cooper denied the furlough request but said a family visit at the courthouse could be arranged.
Stapleton was on probation for earlier arson and vandalism convictions.

County suspends all bench warrants

Indianapolis - Arrest warrants have vanished for thousands of deadbeat parents as a result of a new court policy.
Vicki Sadler and her daughter are awaiting $9,000 in back child support. But last week, the bench warrant for the father's arrest was wiped off the books - along with 4,000 others.
In Marion County, deadbeat parents who skip court no longer face the threat of jail.
"It's more than frustrating. The system itself is frustrating. It's unbelievable," Sadler said. "And then to find out they're untouchable."
"It's going to make it more difficult, there's no question about that," said John Owens, Chief Deputy Prosecutor for Child Support.
Owens' office deals with 72,000 open cases in any given month. Back in 2005, his office rolled out it's "Top Ten Most Wanted" on outstanding warrants. But now, even the worst of the worst can walk free because of a new policy.
"There could be some improvements," said Marion County Court Administrator Glenn Lawrence.
He said the warrants were suspended to allow no-shows the chance to explain why. He also said the county recently settled a case in which a defendant was denied due process.
"They might put them in jail and not bring them immediately before the court," Lawrence said. "So we felt it best to go ahead and do a blanket expungement [sic] of those outstanding - whatever they were - bench warrants."
Marion County's Civil Division says it would typically get between 12 and 15 bench warrants a day for delinquent parents failing to show up in court. But that all stopped abruptly about a week ago.
"Immediately, we had to recall and do away with all of the warrants we had in file and try to run them up around the state of Indiana to notify the sheriffs not to serve our warrants, because they were no longer active," said Marion County Sheriff's Department Capt. Norman Buckner.
Now, the courts can only order what's called a "body attachment".
"It's not really an arrest. It's a notice to bring them before the court," Lawrence said.
The challenge is finding the deadbeats during court hours. With the warrants erased, traffic stops will no longer show police the individual is wanted. more

Mom Arrives at Day Care to Find Infant Son Alone, Locked Inside

A woman broke the window of a Darwin, Australia, childcare center with a brick when she arrived to find the building locked, the lights out and her tiny son trapped inside.
Yula Williams, 30, said she could hear her eight-month-old baby Xavier "screaming and crying," the Northern Territory News reported.
"It made me terrified to know that my son was inside the center, locked and in the dark," she said.
Williams had dropped her son off at the center in the Darwin suburb of Wagaman on Tuesday morning and went to work.
She had dropped her car off at a local mechanic and arranged for one of her cousins to collect her son from the center before it closed at 6 p.m.
But the arrangements fell through close to the day care's closing time, so she tried to call, but the phone kept going to voicemail
"We got here at 10 minutes to six, everything was locked up," she said.
After scanning all the security screens the frantic mother climbed the back of the building to call Xavier's name.
"I couldn't hear him from the outside but when I walked around and called through the vents to the bedrooms I heard him scream," she told ABC radio in Darwin.
Desperate to get to her tiny son, Williams then picked up a brick from the garden bed and smashed it through a window.
Police said they were continuing to conduct investigations into the incident.

17 year old male student wears female clothes to Central High School

(Memphis 1/26/2009) - At Central High School students wear the usual school uniform, changing a little week because of homecoming.
But what one 17 year old male student has been wearing to class caught the principal's attention last week.
"Female bloomers, leggings underneath with some type of straight leg jeans and a shirt that wasn't quite uniform either." says Central High's Principal Greg McCullough.
It wasn't the first time.
"He was wearing pink tops, pink flat slip on shoes, carrying a purse. Normal girl stuff he would wear." says Central High Senior Trayton Guy.
Principal McCullough says the boy's choice of feminine clothes was disrupting class.
"There were complaints from students, parents and teachers that it was a distraction in their classroom that it was causing conversations in their classroom that were not about education." says McCullough.
"They would talk about him and pick on him everyday." says Trayton Guy.
When the 17 year old was told to change his dress, he wasn't happy saying it was his right.
Some agree.
"As long as he is abiding by the rules, doing what he is suppose to in school, nobody should bother him. He isn't messing with nobody else in the school." says Central High Senior Lawrence Goolsby.
"They come to school every year. Plenty of people come to the school every year. They just now wanting to say something." says Chiquita Maxwell, a Central High Student.
The school dress code doesn't permit attire that disrupts learning.
Parents say rules are rules. more

Jurors weep at details of 'Baby Grace' torture

GALVESTON, Texas -- Jurors wept Tuesday watching a woman describe how teaching her 2-year-old daughter proper manners turned into a daylong torture session in which the toddler was beaten with belts, dunked in cold water and flung across a room so violently that she died.
Kimberly Trenor, 20, detailed the abuse in a videotaped statement played for jurors during the first day of her capital murder trial.
Trenor, 20, told investigators in the statement that she hit her daughter with a thick leather belt to teach her to say "please" and "yes, sir."


This undated file photo released by Sheryl Ann Sawyers shows her granddaughter Riley Ann Sawyers, 2, whose body washed ashore in a storage bin in Galveston Bay, Texas, on Oct. 29, 2007. Jurors wept Tuesday Jan. 27, 2009 watching Kimberly Trenor, 20, describe how teaching Riley Ann Sawyers, her 2-year-old daughter, proper manners turned into a daylong torture session in which the toddler was beaten with belts, dunked in cold water and flung across a room so violently that she died. - AP Photo


The little victim was dubbed "Baby Grace" by investigators who worked to identify her decomposed remains after the body was found in a plastic container in October 2007 on a tiny island in Galveston Bay.
Trenor's 25-year-old husband, Royce Zeigler II, is to be tried separately on murder charges. His attorney argues that Trenor is responsible for the child's death.
But Trenor insisted it was her husband who became so enraged when the toddler didn't behave better that he hurled her several times across a room, ultimately fracturing her skull and killing her. more

Fooftball coach pleas not guilt after high school player dies

Ky. Coach Pleads Not Guilty in Player's Death
Louisville community tries to buoy football coach charged in 15-year-old player's heat death

At a church where he's a deacon and the high school where he coaches football, David Jason Stinson is well-liked enough to find himself surrounded by supporters despite prosecutors charging him in a player's death.
On Monday, Stinson pleaded not guilty to reckless homicide in the death of 15-year-old Pleasure Ridge Park High School offensive lineman Max Gilpin, who collapsed at a sweltering Aug. 20 practice after running sprints, sometimes in pads and helmet.
"They're dragging a very good man through the mud and I don't understand why," football booster Rodney Daugherty said of the coach.
A judge released Stinson without bond at the courthouse that attracted at least a dozen community members voicing their support for the first-year head coach. Gilpin's family also was at the hearing, but did not speak to reporters.

However, Jeff Gilpin and Michele Crockett, the player's divorced parents, have jointly sued the school's coaching staff, accusing them of negligence and "reckless disregard," with details of their son's health made part of the lawsuit.
It includes statements by Crockett, who disclosed that her son had taken the dietary supplement Creatine for a time but stopped in July when football practice started.

Creatine is an over-the-counter supplement and among the side effects listed by the National Institute of Health are cramps or muscle breakdown, heat intolerance and electrolyte imbalances, although it is unclear if any of those came into play in Gilpin's death. more

Maryland Teacher arrested for sex acts with 15 year old student

A 24-year-old Maryland woman has become the latest high school teacher to be arrested and charged with having sexual activity with an underage student.

Police say teacher Autumn Leathers had a sexual relationship with a teenage student.(Courtesy Allegany County Criminal Investigation Unit )More Photos
Autumn Leathers, of Frostburg, Md., was charged Thursday with child abuse, fourth-degree sex offense, perverted practice and second-degree assault. She is alleged to have been having sexual relations regularly this summer with a 16-year-old boy from Mountain Ride High School in Frostburg. Leathers taught at the school, but it was unclear whether the boy was one of her students.
An administrative supervisor with the Allegany County Criminal Investigation Unit, who asked not to be named, said Leathers' alleged trysts with the student took place in her home and began this spring.

"The sexual acts took place when he was 15 years old," the supervisor said, noting that the couple was still together when Leathers was arrested.
"It was a continuous course of contact that began in May 2008," the supervisor said.
Police said they were tipped off Wednesday by an adult, though the supervisor declined to say how the tipster knew of the alleged affair.

The Criminal Investigation Unit supervisor wouldn't disclose what type of sex acts Leathers was accused of participating in with the teen but said police, as a matter of procedure in cases like this, were investigating whether there were other students involved.
School officials said Leathers has been placed on leave and faces termination proceedings. She is now free after having posted a $10,000 bond. more

Ex-pastor gets prison for having sex with 10 year old 'wife,'

MONTREAL: A Canadian man who described himself as a pastor was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl he claims was his wife.
Daniel Cormier, 57, was convicted in October after members of the now-defunct Church of Downtown Montreal became suspicious of his relationship with the girl.
Cormier, who led the church, has maintained he did nothing wrong when he married the girl, then 10 years old, in 1999 during a ceremony at his church.
"I would say that there's no remorse," prosecutor Anne-Andree Charette said outside the courtroom. "He just tried to find justifications."
The girl, now 19, testified she was too young to grasp the concept of marriage but said she remembered the sexual abuse in vivid detail.

The Associated Press generally does not name the possible victims of sexual abuse.
Cormier is currently on trial in another case where he is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl — also during his time as a pastor. He denies the accusation.

woman took four children shoplifting at Wal-Mart.

But instead of a lesson in good deals, authorities say Bradley taught them the basics of shoplifting and then left the four to try it themselves.
When they were caught, Latoya Bradley, 24 of Lehigh Acres, fled and abandoned the children there, the Lee County Sheriff's Office said.
Bradley remained in custody Monday at the Lee County Jail on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, child cruelty and larceny petit theft.
Lazzaro Danielson, who tracks shoplifters at the Lehigh Acres store, saw Bradley come in wheeling a shopping cart that carried three children. Another girl, a 12-year-old, walked beside her.
They walked over to the infant clothing section, and Danielson said he saw Bradley show the 12-year-old how to discreetly take baby clothes off the rack and place them underneath the three children in the cart. Bradley then left the children in the section to take more clothes, but watched from afar, he said.
Danielson followed the children, and when they tried to leave the store he confronted them.
"When (Bradley) saw me take the kids, she took off," Danielson said.
He took the children, two of whom were Bradley's, into his office to wait for Lee sheriff's deputies to arrive. Danielson uncovered 17 items in the cart with a total value of about $49.
After taking statements from the children, deputies tracked the red car Bradley had been driving to a home on Quentin Avenue South and arrested her.
"When we told deputies her name, they already knew who she was," Danielson said.
The Department of Children and Families opened an investigation Monday. Bradley is slated to go before a judge today in the case. more

Prep School Student Admits to Killing Mother in Argument Over Grades

TOWSON, Md. — A Maryland teenager calmly admitted in court Monday that he beat his mother to death with a baseball bat after an argument over his grades at a prestigious private school.

Lewin C. Powell III, 16, wore a dark suit and showed no emotion as he answered questions from Baltimore County Circuit Judge Kathleen G. Cox about whether he understood the significance of his guilty plea to first-degree murder.

Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence with the possibility of parole when he is sentenced April 3. Powell's attorneys plan to ask for all but 15 years of the sentence to be suspended and to have their client sent to the Patuxent Institute, a maximum-security psychiatric facility with a program for young offenders.

Powell did not stir when a prosecutor read a statement of facts that detailed the prolonged attack on his mother and a similar beating of his father, who survived.

"He's always taken responsibility for what he's done," Shanell Kathleen Harleston, one of Powell's attorneys, said after the hearing. "He never wanted to prolong it."

Powell killed his mother, Donna R. Campbell-Powell, in May after an argument about his grades at McDonogh School, a prestigious private school in Owings Mill where he was a sophomore. But Harleston said the initial subject of the dispute with his mother was immaterial.

"This is a lifetime of problems that he's been dealing with that suddenly came to a head," Harleston said. "This particular day was the first time he had ever argued back. ... He just snapped that day."

Harleston would not specify what led to Powell's emotional difficulties, but the teen told police after he was arrested that his parents had pushed him too hard and he couldn't take it anymore, according to a statement of facts read in court Monday by Assistant State's Attorney Charles R. Gayle.

Harleston said Powell was not abused by his parents.

In exchange for Powell's guilty plea, prosecutors dropped all other charges, including a count of attempted murder for the attack on his father, who suffered two skull fractures when his son beat him with the same aluminum bat.

State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger said after the hearing that he did not believe Patuxent was an appropriate placement for Powell. Prosecutors will argue that Powell should serve his sentence in a state prison.

If he receives a life sentence, Powell could be eligible for parole after 12 years with good behavior. Parole for an offender serving a life sentence in Maryland requires the approval of the governor, which hasn't happened since 1994.

The son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell lived with his parents in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in the Baltimore suburb of Towson. He had no history of violent behavior and took honors-level classes at McDonogh, where annual tuition exceeds $20,000. more

9-year-old motorist injures elderly woman

A 9-year-old girl was behind the wheel of a car that ran into an 80-year-old woman and broke both her legs in a Walgreens parking lot Friday night on the South Side.

At 7 p.m. a woman parked her car in the lot of a Walgreens on the 6330 block of South King Drive, leaving her young daughter and the girl’s aunt inside, according to Grand Crossing District police Lt. Timothy Bickham.

While the aunt was talking on a cell phone inside the car, the child jumped into the driver’s seat and put the car into gear, the lieutenant said.

The car moved and struck an 80-year-old woman who was in the parking lot, pinning her under the vehicle and breaking both her legs, according to Bickham, who said the vehicle also struck another car.

The 80-year-old woman was transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where she was in “stable” condition, according to police News Affairs Officer JoAnn Taylor.

Bickham said no one else was injured and the aunt told police the girl accidentally put the car into gear.

The aunt inside the 2000 Dodge Intrepid, Cynthia Harris, 23, of the 7800 block of South Laflin, was charged with endangering the life of a child and cited with the traffic violation of permitting an unauthorized person to drive, according to Taylor.

The mother of the 9-year-old, 26-year-old Elnora Moody, of the 6400 block of South King Drive, was charged with driving on a suspended license, no insurance and parking in a fire lane, according to Taylor, who said both Moody and Harris are scheduled to appear in traffic court on March 12.

A video camera captured an image of the child getting out of the driver’s seat, Bickham said.

Bickham said the police Major Accidents Investigation Unit is investigating.

3 year old girl was found alone in Chuck Cheese

Authorities say the girl told them her name is Keyshanna. She was found without an adult in the restaurant at the Festival Shopping Center shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday.

The sheriff's office says in a news release it has not concluded its investigation and will release more details once investigators determine exactly what happened.

The sheriff's office said earlier the girl was brought to the restaurant Sunday afternoon, possibly by someone the girl called "Uncle Damon."

Teen pleads not guilty to impersonating officer

CHICAGO - A 14-year-old boy accused of impersonating a police officer and going on patrol for five hours has pleaded not guilty.

The teenager appeared in a Chicago juvenile courtroom on Monday in a purple sweater with his hands cuffed behind his back.

A judge ordered that he be held at the juvenile center because he could pose a danger to himself.

On Saturday the teen, wearing an officer's uniform, walked into a police station and was assigned to go on patrol in a squad car. Police say he did not have a gun, never issued any tickets and didn't drive the car.

The Rev. Roosevelt Watkins said, until recently, the boy lived with him for nearly a year. Watkins says the teen is fascinated with everything to do with police work and that his favorite television shows are police dramas.

Teens charged with stealing pizzas, wings from delivery man

BOYNTON BEACH — Police say two female teenagers were arrested on charges of beating a Papa John's delivery man and stealing dinner they allegedly ordered: pizza, wings and a cheese steak that cost $55.

Boynton Beach police officers arrested the teenagers Thursday and found the still-warm pizzas in a closet. Arrested were Valerie Blanc and Michelle Turner, both 19.

A witness told detectives she saw the two suspects leave the house and attack the pizza delivery man. He had been trying to deliver three pizzas - extra cheese, pepperoni and ham - in addition to a 10-piece order of buffalo wings with blue-cheese dressing and a 2-liter bottle of Coke when he was attacked.

Both teens were charged with armed robbery and aggravated battery.