27 Feb
Thursday, February 26, 2009 03:15 PM
Edward Graziano, the father of John Graziano, whom Nick Bollea crashed into a vegetative state back in 2007, you’ll remember, was arrested today in Tampa, Florida, after a two-and-half-month undercover investigation by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. Continue reading
11 Feb
BELLINGHAM, Wash. —
Three women believed a 28-year-old woman was having an affair with one of their boyfriends and came up with a plan to get rid of her by having her deported.
A Bellingham police spokesman, Lt. Steve Felmley, said two of the women shoved the victim in a car Friday and took her to a Border Patrol station.
A Border Patrol agent, Michael Bermudez, on Monday said they took no one into custody and called police to deal with the women. The police spokesman said they don’t ask crime victims whether they are in the country legally, so the 28-year-old is free.
Meanwhile, the three women are being investigated for unlawful imprisonment.
Felmley said, “I don’t think this plan is working out the way they thought it would.”
11 Feb
Rimantas Sulcas, a friend of accused Vitas Plytnykas, said he heard him discussing the issue with Aleksandras Skirda who has already admitted murder.
Lithuanian Mr Plytnykas, 41, denies murdering Jolanta Bledaite, whose severed remains were found in Arbroath.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard Mr Sulcas say he thought the men’s talk about robbing Ms Bledaite was a joke.
Mr Sulcas said there had been a plan to steal Ms Bledaite’s bank cards then “to keep her tied in the flat for a while, find the PIN code then take the money”.
He continued: “The suggestion was to do it together. With me.”
Advocate depute Alex Prentice QC, prosecuting, asked him: “Did you want to have anything to do with it?”
Mr Sulcas said: “No I thought it was a joke.”
Somewhere was needed to hide the body “in case of death”, Mr Sulcas told the court.
He said he thought it was all a joke but added: “It became real later.”
Mr Sulcas also claimed Mr Plytnykas kept telling him that if anything went wrong he would cut Ms Bledaite’s head off.
Earlier, Skirda, who has admitted killing Ms Bledaite and throwing her chopped-up body into the sea last April, was accused of lying in a bid to get a lighter sentence.
Skirda previously told the court that Mr Plytnykas had smothered Ms Bledaite with a pillow then cut off her head.
But Mr Plytnykas’ QC said his client’s DNA was not on knives found by police.
Skirda was spending a second day in the witness box at the High Court in Edinburgh.
He said Mr Plytnykas came up with the idea for the murder and had come to the flat in Southesk Street, Brechin, on 29 March last year, bringing plastic gloves to use in the killing.
Police questions
Ms Bledaite’s head was found on 1 April by two young sisters playing on the beach at Arbroath.
Paul McBride QC accused Skirda of showing no emotion as his flatmate was butchered for her savings.
“You did act as coolly as you please, didn’t you? You didn’t panic. You weren’t frightened. You were as cool as a cucumber,” he said.
Skirda told the lawyer: “No”
He added, with the help of an interpreter: “I tried to hold back my panic and not show it.”
The trial also saw on video the moment when Skirda finally buckled under police questions and told them about Ms Bledaite’s death.
Detectives told Skirda that a forensic team searching the flat in Southesk Street had found blood on a door-frame, a bath panel and soaking through the carpet.
“This is going to be difficult. Can I get a fag before all that,” said Skirda.
He went on to describe what he claims Mr Plytnykas did and told the detectives: “I just watched.”
Mr McBride challenged: “That was a blatant lie, wasn’t it?” Skirda insisted: “No”.
Confronted with another statement in which he told a different story, he said: “What I said in court on Friday was a true version.”
Mr McBride continued: “There is no DNA evidence at all that links Vitas to this murder. Is that just bad luck or what?”
“I don’t know,” said Skirda.
“You do know because it was you and you alone that carried out the murder,” said Mr McBride.
“The reason why there is no DNA link to that man sitting on trial at the High Court (Mr Plytnykas) is because he was not there.”
“No,” repeated Skirda.
He also denied trying to seek a lower sentence by shifting the blame onto someone else.
The trial continues. Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/7879160.stm
9 Feb
Saturday, February 07, 2009KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Identical twin brothers escaped the death penalty in a Malaysian drug trafficking trial after the court ruled authorities could not prove which man committed the alleged crime, news reports said Saturday.“I … can’t be sending the wrong person to the gallows,” the New Straits Times newspaper quoted the judge in the case as saying.
Police arrested the 27-year-old brothers in August 2003 after they found large amounts of opium and marijuana in a house to which one of the twins had the key, the New Straits Times and national news agency Bernama reported.
Both men were charged, but Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Zaharah Ibrahim ruled Friday that only the twin with the key could be proven to be the owner of the drugs.
Because the brothers’ identical features made it impossible for officers testifying to point out which one had been found with the key, she had no choice but to acquit both men.
She called the ruling “a very unique case.” Court officials familiar with the case could not immediately be reached.
The twins wept and hugged each other after the judge read her verdict, the reports added.
Malaysia has a mandatory penalty of death by hanging for drug trafficking. More than 200 people have been executed since capital punishment was implemented for the offense in 1975.
6 Feb
| By Michelle Durand
from the Daily Journal |
|
The manager of Roti, an Indian bistro in downtown Burlingame, stole identifying information from restaurant customers and used it to buy gift cards and other items from his wife who worked at a South San Francisco Safeway store, according to prosecutors.
Atin Singh, 23, and Iris Singh, 27, of South San Francisco, are both charged with 42 crimes including identity theft, credit card theft and commercial burglary, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. They have pleaded not guilty and return to court Feb. 25 for a Superior Court review conference. According to prosecutors, Antil Singh took customer information from his work place and used it to purchase goods from his wife’s register at the Safeway deli counter. Antil Singh was reportedly arrested at the restaurant while his wife was apprehended at home and prosecutors charged the couple Jan. 21. The exact amount of money allegedly taken was not available and a call to the Park Road restaurant went unanswered. Both Singhs remain in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail. Neither have a criminal history in San Mateo County, according to court records.
Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102. |
6 Feb
Restaurant Horror Stories —Ever wonder about a restaurant stealing your identity and credit card information? Well, maybe you should: “The manager of Roti, an Indian bistro in downtown Burlingame, stole identifying information from restaurant customers and used it to buy gift cards and other items from his wife who worked at a South San Francisco Safeway store, according to prosecutors.” [SMDJ]
5 Feb
Two young men _ one of them a butcher _ have been arrested on suspicion of killing a 16-year-old girl and eating parts of her body, Russian prosecutors said Wednesday.
The girl disappeared after leaving her home in St. Petersburg for school on Jan. 19, city prosecutor’s spokesman Sergei Kapitonov said. He said she was killed that night, and that body parts believed to be hers were found in plastic bags scattered around the city.
Police arrested Yuri Mozhnov, a florist, and Maxim Golovatskikh, a street-market butcher and one-time psychiatric patient on Saturday, Kapitonov said.
The suspects, both 19, knew the victim, and she accompanied them voluntarily to an apartment rented by another acquaintance on the day she went missing, Kapitonov said. Prosecutors believe they drowned the girl in a bathtub.
‘The arrestees said they ate the girl’s body parts because they were hungry,’ Kapitonov said. They told investigators they baked some body parts with potatoes, he said.
They allegedly disposed of her bagged remains in garbage containers and bodies of water. Bags with body parts were found in at least two locations, he said. Both men are being held on suspicion of murder.
St. Petersburg news Web site fontanka.ru cited a top city prosecutor, Andrei Lavrenko, as saying investigators believe the suspects decided to kill the victim after an argument erupted between her and Golovatskikh.
Moscow-based tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda on Wednesday cited a department head at the St. Petersburg forensic medicine office, Vitaly Sysoyev, as saying the body parts had not been positively identified as those of the girl, who he said was still officially listed as missing.
Kapitonov said he was unaware of that.
Lavrenko said investigators found traces of blood when they ripped out plumbing and floorboards in the apartment, fontanka.ru reported.
Mozhnov was convicted of robbery in 2005, Kapitonov said. He said Golovatskikh had been treated in the past at a psychiatric hospital.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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