Five Kansas teens charged with threatening to attack their school

By: Associated Press | Monday, April 24, 2006 6:37 PM PDT ∞

COLUMBUS, Kan. -- Five teenage boys were charged Monday with threatening to carry out a shooting spree at their high school on the anniversary of the Columbine bloodbath. - The defendants, ages 16 to 18, were each charged with incitement to riot and making a criminal threat.

A judge set bail at $50,000 for Charles New, 18, who was charged as an adult. The four juveniles were ordered held for a hearing May 3.

"These are serious allegations and they scared me as I read them," Judge Robert Fleming said.

The incitement charges carries to seven to 23 months in jail; the criminal threat charge is punishable by five to 17 months behind bars.

The teenagers were arrested Thursday -- the seventh anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado -- after a message about the alleged plot appeared on the Web site Myspace.com.

Sheriff Steve Norman said the teens planned to wear black trench coats and disable the school's camera system before starting the attack.

Boy, 12, charged with killing mother and younger brother


DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md. (AP) -- A 12-year-old boy accused of beating and stabbing to death his mother and younger brother was charged as a juvenile Monday with two counts of first-degree murder. - The boy, whose name was not released because of his age, will remain in custody until his next hearing May 15.

Katrina Denise Powe, 31, and 9-year-old Mystery Toma Hillian were found dead Sunday in the family's apartment outside Washington after police received a 911 call. Authorities have not said who made the call.

Detectives interviewed the boy and arrested him there, said Cpl. Clinton Copeland. He said the boy implicated himself.

Copeland initially said a metal bar believed used in the killings was normally used to secure a car's steering wheel to prevent theft, but later corrected that description.

No relatives attended the hearing and the boy was represented by an unnamed public defender. Prosecutors said the 12-year-old's father was on his way Monday to Maryland from North Carolina.

Children under 14 cannot be charged with homicide as adults in Maryland and are not be eligible for the death penalty, said Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman with the office of the county state's attorney.

At 12, the defendant is believed to be one of the youngest ever charged with homicide in Maryland. If found responsible for the deaths, the boy could be held until he is 21 years of age, said Deputy State's Attorney Patricia Smoot.

Neighbors described the 12-year-old boy as a bully.

"He was a bad kid," said 10-year-old Jasmine Williams. "He would get himself in trouble hitting people."

Other neighbors remembered the two boys playing football on a grass quadrangle in the center of the complex of three-story apartment buildings just inside the Capital Beltway. Balloons and a bouquet of flowers on Monday marked the building where the family lived.

Barbara Addison, 53, a resident of the garden apartments, said her grandson played with Mystery.

"It's just devastating," she said. "He was a nice kid."

Man arrested in Aruba in Holloway case released from custody, prosecutors say


ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) -- A 19-year-old man arrested in the disappearance of a young Alabama woman was released from jail on Monday, but prosecutors said he remained a suspect. - In a statement, the prosecutor's office also said Monday that a 20-year-old man with the initials A.B. was arrested in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway on Saturday and was released after six hours of interrogation. No details were provided.

Geoffrey van Cromvoirt, the 19-year-old who was arrested on April 15, is suspected of "criminal offenses that may be related to the disappearance" of Holloway, prosecutors said.

"He has been released because the grounds for his detention are no longer there. He remains a suspect," the prosecutor's office said without elaborating.

Van Cromvoirt's family and his defense attorney has said he had nothing to do with Holloway's disappearance and is not connected with anyone previously detained in the investigation. The 19-year-old was also detained on suspicion of drug offenses.

Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., was 18 when she vanished on May 30 -- the final night of a high school graduation trip to this Dutch Caribbean island.

Authorities have previously arrested seven people in connection with Holloway's disappearance and then released them for lack of evidence.

Dutch marines, the Aruban Coast Guard, the FBI and hundreds of volunteers have searched the island and coastal areas for Holloway, to no avail.

Report: Art items stolen at manor house worth $142 million


LONDON (AP) -- Works of art stolen from a 17th-century manor house were worth an estimated $142 million, making the raid the largest property theft in British history, according to reports. - Thieves driving Jeeps forced entry to the estate of property tycoon Harry Hyams in February, stealing around 300 museum-grade artifacts, police said.

Officers said they initially estimated the goods, including paintings, clocks and silver, were worth about $36 million.

However, The Art Newspaper, based in London and New York, reported Sunday that a new assessment by police and insurance companies values the items at four times that figure.

It would mean that the value of the theft from Ramsbury Manor, at Ramsbury in southern England, is larger than the $92 million stolen in Britain's largest cash robbery earlier this year.

Wiltshire Police, investigating the theft, refused to comment Monday.

"Though it is difficult to put precise figures on works of this type, these items were of the very highest quality, the like of which have seen their value increase by tens if not hundreds of percent over the last few years," Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, the London-based international art recovery specialist, told The Associated Press.

Hyams, 78, amassed his fortune in real estate and was ranked 204th in a 2006 Times newspaper survey of Britain's richest people.

Remains of 4,000 German soldiers to be moved to military warehouse near Prague


PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- The Czech military on Monday signed an agreement with a German organization under which it would store the remains of thousands of Germany's World War II soldiers who died on Czech territory, an official said. - Under the agreement, the remains of 4,000 soldiers, exhumed several years ago from cemeteries and mass graves throughout the Czech Republic, will be moved Thursday to a military area in Brdy, about 30 miles southwest of Prague, said Czech Defense Ministry spokesman Jan Pejsek.

The remains have been stored for three years in a former factory in Usti nad Labem, 62 miles north of Prague, because the German organization that takes care of German soldiers killed in the first and second world wars in various European countries ran out of funds needed to bury them.

The remains will be kept in a storehouse in the military area until the end of 2008 and then buried at a cemetery in Marianske Lazne, 70 miles west of Prague.

Pejsek said Catholic and Protestant clergymen will attend a brief ceremony to be held in the Brdy military area Thursday.

The German organization that oversees war graves, Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgraberfursorge, said it originally hoped to have the remains buried on the grounds of a German Protestant cemetery in Prague, but that plan was thwarted by planning restrictions and financial problems.

Russian cargo ship carrying food, supplies blasts off for space station


MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian cargo ship carrying food and supplies, as well as Easter gifts, blasted off Monday for the international space station, the Russian space agency said. - The unmanned Progress M-56 ship lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is scheduled to dock at the orbiting space station on Wednesday. It is carrying nearly 3 tons of fuel, food and water, along with DVDs, CDs and books.

Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams began a six-month mission on the station April 1.

The Progress vessel is also carrying parcels from the cosmonauts' families with Easter gifts, the space agency said.

Category-5 Cyclone Monica hovering over Australia's remote northern coast


SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Residents of the northern city of Darwin braced Monday for Tropical Cyclone Monica, a Category 5 storm packing 217 mph winds that one forecaster said might be the fiercest in Australian history. - The cyclone lashed sparsely populated islands off Australia's Northern Territory, according to the national Bureau of Meteorology.

Senior forecaster Gordon Jackson said the storm was "quite possibly" the worst cyclone to hit Australia -- more powerful than even Cyclone Tracy, which struck Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974, leveling the city and killing 65 people.

"It's definitely the most intense to hit the Northern Territory," Jackson said. "It's worse than Tracy because it's a Category 5, whereas Tracy was a Category 4."

Since Cyclone Tracy hit, Darwin has been rebuilt with homes intended to be strong enough to survive severe storms.

The cyclone has been tracking along Australia's northern coast for several days, threatening a number of remote Aboriginal communities but causing no injuries or major damage. It first struck the northeastern coast of Queensland state last week as a Category 3 storm, but has since intensified to a Category 5 -- the most powerful designation.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the "very destructive core" of the cyclone was expected to hit the Northern Territory's remote Coburg Peninsula, then weaken slightly as it moves toward Darwin.

"We're hoping as it hits the land it will lose some intensity, but there's no doubt a serious cyclone is on the way," said forecaster Andrew Tupper.

Satellite pictures showed the eye of the massive storm system tracking directly toward Darwin, which has a population of around 100,000. Residents were advised to secure their homes and stock up on supplies.

Uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia shut down its operations Monday as a precaution. The company, which is majority owned by mining giant Rio Tinto, operates the Ranger uranium mine located 155 miles east of Darwin, which lies in the cyclone's path.

Monica came just one month after Category 5 Cyclone Larry tore through the rural community of Innisfail, about 62 miles south of Cairns, destroying thousands of homes and devastating banana and sugar cane plantations with 180 mph winds.

Cyclones -- called typhoons throughout much of Asia and hurricanes in the Western hemisphere -- are large-scale rotating storms that generate high winds and typically form at sea before moving inland.

They are relatively common along Australia's remote northern from November to April.

On the Net:


Bureau of Meteorology: http://www.bom.gov.au

5 firefighters shocked while battling blaze in abandoned row houses


PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Five firefighters battling a row house fire Monday suffered electric shocks when the ladder on their fire truck hit overhead power lines. - All five were taken to hospitals. Two remained hospitalized in stable condition late Monday afternoon with electrocution burns.

The five were on the ground and were near or touching the truck at the time of the freak mishap, Deputy Fire Commissioner Ernest Hargett said.

About 100 firefighters battled the blaze, reported around 6 a.m. The flames spread from a vacant home to several other vacant buildings before crews could get the fire under control.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Capricorn Records founder Phil Walden dies at 66; handled Otis Redding, Allman Brothers


ATLANTA (AP) -- Phil Walden, the Capricorn Records founder who launched the careers of Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers Band, has died after a long battle with cancer, his family said Monday. He was 66. - Walden died at his home Sunday, said his daughter, Amantha Walden.

The Macon-based record label, founded in 1969, was influential in bringing together rock, country and blues artists who crafted a new style exemplified by groups like the Allmans and the Charlie Daniels Band, another act discovered by Walden.

"Phil was a visionary," said Chuck Leavell, who joined the Allman Brothers on keyboards in 1972 and now plays with the Rolling Stones. "He just had a great vision and a true, deep passion for the music."

Walden's long career began when he was a college student at Mercer University in Macon, where he helped break down racial barriers in the Deep South by booking predominantly black bands for white college and high school parties.

Walden's two most famous artists, Redding and guitarist Duane Allman, both died tragically, Redding in a plane crash in 1967 at 26 and Allman in a motorcycle accident in 1971 at age 24.

The Allman Brothers Band, the quintessential Southern rock band which the guitarist founded with brother Gregg and others, continued after Duane Allman's death.

Earlier, Walden met Redding in Macon in the 1950s, when both were teenagers. Redding became a top rhythm and blues star in the 1960s and was on the brink of wider acclaim when he died.

He had recorded his "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" just days earlier. It became a smash hit in 1968.

"Starting with Otis has really been the story of my career," Walden told The Associated Press in a 1997 interview. "I don't sing, I don't write, I don't perform, I don't produce. But I've had these incredible associations over some 40 years in this industry with some of the most incredibly talented people."

Redding and Walden's close friendship made them outcasts in the segregated South, Redding's widow, Zelma Redding, recalled in 1997. She said Walden's passion for black music made him "the little white boy who everybody was wanting to beat up on."

Over the years, Walden endured some rocky times at Capricorn, including bankruptcy proceedings and a late '70s lawsuit by the Allmans, in which the courts ruled the band had been underpaid for album sales.

Walden sold the rights to Capricorn's contracts and music catalogue in 2000. He recently had been working with Velocette Records, a small, Atlanta-based independent label run largely by his children.

"My father was an amazing man. He fought a lot of battles and he won a lot and he lost some," Amantha Walden said. "He had a lot to pass down to us and we're just proud to be carrying on that legacy."

In recent years, Walden talked openly about his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse. Friends and family say he had been sober since the 1990s.

During the 1970s, Walden was an early backer of then-Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter. He helped Carter's upstart bid for the presidency financially, as did the Allmans and other Capricorn groups, who played benefit shows.

Carter said Monday in a statement that he and wife Rosalynn were sad to hear of Walden's death. "Phil was one of the pre-eminent producers of great music in America," Carter said. "His many performing partners, including Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers, helped to put Macon and Georgia on the musical map of the world."

Teens avoid life in prison in fatal homeless beating


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Four teenagers who pleaded guilty to beating a homeless man to death last spring were sentenced to more than 20 years in prison Monday. - The teens pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Michael Roberts, 53. Authorities said Roberts was beaten, kicked and crushed when his attacked jumped on a log on his chest.

"Very, very few people are capable of committing such a heinous, brutal murder of an innocent person, and when it is done, the people who do that need to be kept away from society," prosecutor Ed Davis said.

Jeffrey Spurgeon, 19, and Chris Scamahorn, 15, were each sentenced to 35 years in prison. Justin Stearns, 18, will serve 27 years, and Warren Messner, 16, was sentenced to nearly 23 years. All four will be on probation for the rest of their lives, court spokeswoman Linda Pruitt said.

Prosecutors had requested life in prison for the four, saying the teens beat Roberts as he begged for his life and then bragged about the killing for weeks before they were caught.

Defense attorneys said the teens had family issues and drug problems.

A fifth youth, Phi Huynk, 16, still faces a charge of aggravated battery.

Sept. 11 health official says he's worried about illnesses


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government's point man on Sept. 11 health programs said he is worried that an autopsy linking a retired detective's death to recovery work at ground zero may be a warning sign of other life-threatening cases. - Dr. John Howard also said it will take time to determine whether there is a scientific link between deaths and exposure to toxic dust. Some epidemiologists have said it will take 20 years or more to prove such a link.

Howard, who is to meet in New York this week with congressional leaders about ground zero health issues, was tapped by the Bush administration in February to coordinate the federal response to ongoing Sept. 11 health programs.

That role took on greater urgency with the April release of retired Det. James Zadroga's autopsy, which concluded "with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident." The autopsy said Zadroga died in January of respiratory failure caused by exposure to toxic dust.

Howard, whose day job is overseeing the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, told The Associated Press in a recent interview the autopsy was "worrisome, and we need to look further in this case."

Doctors and government officials worry Zadroga's death may be a so-called sentinel case, an early harbinger of future deaths from such exposure.

"You have a particular case with characteristics that are unusual," Howard said.

He cited Zadroga's relatively young age, 34, and diseased heart muscle. "Just based on that, you would say, gee, is this a sentinel case?" he said. "This may be a warning and requires attention and vigilance."

Howard said his primary goal is to find out how many ground zero workers are suffering ill effects.

"The first issue is treatment. That is primary," he said.

Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., said he was pleased Howard is aggressively examining cases like the Zadroga death.

"Clearly and sadly, Detective Zadroga and perhaps others will be the first of a wave of those who become the secondary victims of 9/11, though they didn't go down with the towers," Fossella said.

'Thrasher' skateboarding magazine founder dies during bike ride


WOODSIDE (AP) -- Fausto Vitello, the founding publisher of Thrasher magazine, a monthly must-read for skateboarding enthusiasts, has died. He was 59. - Vitello died Saturday after suffering an apparent heart attack while bike riding in Woodside with friends.

Vitello and a friend founded Thrasher in 1981, as skateboarding was enjoying a rebirth as a write-your-own-rules street sport. He ran the publication out of an office at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco.

"You don't expect anything like this. He rode his bike like crazy. He seemed to be in good shape," said his wife, Gwynn Vitello, by telephone Monday.

Vitello was born in Buenos Aires and moved to San Francisco with his family at age 9. He was raised in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and picked up English by listening to San Francisco Giants games on the radio, according to his son, Tony Vitello.

When skateboarding dipped in popularity, Fausto Vitello fought hard to save it, his son said.

"He was skateboarding's saving grace. When the industry was in the gutter, he gave it mouth-to-mouth," Tony Vitello said in a statement posted on Thrasher's Web site.

Vitello also founded the Independent Trucks company, a popular manufacturer of skateboard trucks, or axles.

Washington sniper agrees to standby lawyers, proposed juror questions


ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) -- Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad agreed Monday to let three standby attorneys assist him during his upcoming trial in six of the 2002 Washington-area sniper shootings. - Muhammad fired his court-appointed attorneys and is representing himself at the trial, scheduled to begin May 1.

The standby attorneys will provide legal advice if he requests it during trial. If Muhammad can't represent himself for some reason, the team would become his lawyers.

One of the attorneys, J. Wyndal Gordon, said after Monday's hearing that Muhammad had formed coherent arguments despite his lack of legal training and questions about his mental state.

"I was impressed," Gordon said. "He definitely is not intimidated by the system.

Muhammad and accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, then a teenager, were accused of killing 10 people and wounding three during a three-week shooting spree in October 2002. They were linked to several more shootings in other states. Muhammad was sentenced to death in Virginia at an early trial, and Malvo was sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors said the upcoming Maryland trial is insurance if the Virginia verdict is overturned.

On Monday, Montgomery County Circuit Judge James Ryan also agreed to allow 28 subpoenas from a list of 178 people Muhammad wants to call in his defense. He said Muhammad would have to provide more information about the others before approving them.

Assistant State's Attorney Vivek Chopra accused Muhammad of employing stall tactics to stretch out the case.

"The defense is trying to grind this proceeding today and this trial to a halt," Chopra said.

Muhammad also submitted his proposed list of questions for potential jurors. Some involved legal beliefs. One asked whether jurors believed students should wear uniforms. He also hoped to present jurors with a list of 76 words, such as "hearsay" and "brainwash," to measure their reactions.

"When I ask questions about words it gives me a different type of understanding pertaining to the person," he explained.

Charges filed against former juvenile center workers accused of sex with girls


INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Nine former employees of a county juvenile detention center were charged Monday with using their positions of authority to have sex with teenage girls. - The nine workers were accused of having sex with six girls who were 13 to 15 years old at the time.

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said one girl was raped by one of the defendants. The five others agreed to have sex with one or more of the men, but in Indiana the age of sexual consent is 16.

Brizzi said the defendants sent the victims love letters and even a teddy bear bearing the words "I love you."

"These girls were very vulnerable and were being groomed by the youth managers," he said. "Some of these guards even shared these young girls."

The nine defendants -- all of whom were fired or quit -- face 52 charges including child molesting, sexual misconduct with a minor, child solicitation and official misconduct.

Brizzi said the superintendent of the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center, Damon Ellison, had known for about six years that at least one girl was molested but did not report it. He said Ellison also did not try to stop other molestations by staff members.

Ellison was charged with neglect of a dependent and obstruction of justice, and was suspended without pay, Brizzi said. Ellison's lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

Police kill man who hijacked Krispy Kreme truck and took 76-year-old hostage


PHOENIX (AP) -- An armed man hijacked a Krispy Kreme delivery truck and led police on a chase across the city and into a shopping center, where officers killed him after he took a 76-year-old man hostage. - The hostage was treated for injuries caused by police bullet fragments.

The pursuit started early Sunday in Peoria, on the west side of Phoenix, where an officer confronted the man for allegedly driving a stolen vehicle, said Peoria police spokesman Mike Tellef.

The man pointed a gun at the officer, tried unsuccessfully to take another vehicle from customers and employees at a convenience store, then forced two Krispy Kreme employees to give him their delivery truck, Tellef said.

Officers pursued the truck across northern Phoenix to Scottsdale, where police spikes flattened three of the truck's tires.

The gunman forced his way into a closed Safeway store and took employee Patrick Corbett, 76, hostage, said Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark.

As he held a gun to Corbett's head and attempted to leave the store, a police officer shot the man in the back of the head, Clark said.

Corbett was hospitalized in stable condition, authorities said.

Police did not immediately release the gunman's identification.

Authorities identify man in fatal sinkhole plunge


ALTA (AP) -- After two days of recovery attempts, workers reached the body of a man who was killed when a huge hole opened beneath his house. - Authorities identified the victim as 32-year-old Jason Chellew, a schoolteacher whose wife was pregnant.

Chellew was relaxing in his living room about 9:30 p.m. Friday when he heard creaking noises, sprang up and began to move across the room just as the floor opened beneath him, authorities said.

His wife was in bed and was uninjured, said Rick Armstrong, a retired Placer County sheriff's captain who said he has known the Chellew family for decades.

This area in the Sierra Nevada foothills was heavily mined for gold in the late 1800s. A mine collapse is one likely cause of the strange episode, officials said. A team of 100 people was investigating the site Sunday, including numerous geologists.

Chellew had no pulse when rescuers reached him Friday night. The workers trying to extricate his body were forced to retreat because the ground remained unstable through the weekend. It expanded beyond some of the load-bearing walls of the home, leading the recovery team to consider demolishing it.

A second sinkhole opened up about 50 feet away from the house, authorities said.

"You hate to lose anybody like that," said Carol Gillies, clerk of the Alta Fire District. "This whole area is undermined with mines. It makes you think about, 'Where did I build my house?"'

Douglas Ferrier, president of the Golden Drift Historical Society, which exists to preserve the region's mining history, said the area was part of the historic Nary Red Mine. It is a web of 16 different gold mining claims that operated from the 1860s to the 1940s, he said.

No maps exist of these mines, and there has apparently been no concerted effort to seal old mine shafts in the area, he said.

"It would not surprise me at all that there are shafts and tunnels that do not show evidence on the surface but that may be there underneath the ground," Ferrier said.

"Whenever you're living in mining areas, you should consider that," Ferrier said. "There may be absolutely no surface evidence that it's there, and it could be five feet below the surface."

Tourist from New York killed in crash near Las Vegas Strip


LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A tourist from New York was killed and another was critically hurt when a hotel van they were in was hit by a car involved in a police chase near the Las Vegas Strip, police said. - Sal Crapanzano, 78, of Staten Island, N.Y., was killed in the noon Sunday wreck on Flamingo Road, and Claire Amacio, 72, of Brooklyn, was taken to University Medical Center where she was reported to be in critical condition with unspecified injuries, authorities said.

A Harrah's Entertainment employee driving the van, Alejandro Jacquez-Acosta, 26, of Las Vegas, suffered serious injuries and was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas, police said.

Tyson Robinson, 20, ran from a Chevrolet Malibu that authorities said slammed into a white Dodge Caravan van as it pulled out of a Bally's hotel-casino driveway. Robinson was apprehended in Bally's, where police said he was shocked with a Taser gun before he was arrested.

The occupants of two other vehicles struck in the crash were treated at the scene for minor injuries, but were not hospitalized, police said.

Crapanzano and Amacio were among 81 people from around the nation taking part in a "Search the Strip" treasure hunt sponsored by Harrah's Las Vegas, a company spokesman said. The event, which ended Sunday, featured a $1 million grand prize.

An officer in a marked police cruiser, with lights and siren activated, began chasing the Chevrolet Malibu after a taxi driver reported seeing what he thought was a carjacking.

The car, with Arizona license plates, sped south on Interstate 15 before exiting on Flamingo Road and heading toward the Strip. The officer broke off the chase, but continued to follow as the Malibu ran a red light at Las Vegas Boulevard before hitting the van.

Clark County Undersheriff Doug Gillespie said the officer abided by department policies in breaking off the pursuit due to traffic conditions.

Robinson had a large amount of cocaine with him when he was arrested, police said, and a semiautomatic pistol was found inside the Malibu.

Robinson was held Monday at the Clark County jail on felony murder, driving under the influence, evading, reckless driving, hit and run and possession of a controlled substance for sale charges, as well as a possession of an unregistered firearm charge.