You'll recall that Cullen Marino, 22, (shown here) is accused of providing drugs to Chase Nunez, 18, and Kyle McNutt, 17, and then failing to call 911 after he found them unresponsive in the middle of the night.
Domingo Ramirez Jr. has this update.
-- Bill Miller
The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, which has been mentioned in reports about the killing of prosecutors in Kaufman County, is active in Tarrant County.
"We probably run across them on a daily basis," said Herschel Tebay, commander of the Tarrant County Narcotics Unit.
"If," he added, "we run across white males dealing in drugs in Tarrant County, there's a good chance the Aryan Brotherhood is involved in one way or the other."
Investigators have yet to say whether they really believe the ABT is responsible for the Kaufman murders. But this Texas prison gang is known for extreme violence and illegal drug dealings in Tarrant County, Tebay and other officials said Tuesday.
For example, Stephen Lance Heard (shown above) was affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood. He was convicted in the killing of Fort Worth police officer Henry "Hank" Nava in November 2005.
But there are more Tarrant County stories involving the ABT. Read more in this report by Domingo Ramirez Jr.
— Bill Miller
A year ago beauty contestant Maria Susana Flores was pursuing a full calendar of pageants, including one as far away as China.
She had the chance to compete for the coveted Miss Sinaloa title, and then, Miss Mexico.
But "Susy" had also chosen another path at the crossroads of power and beauty in Sinaloa -- a Mexican state known for drug lords and pageant queens.
In November, she died holding AK-47 in a spray of gunfire from Mexican special forces troops.
"I swear," said her mother, "I would have never imagined, ever in my life, that my daughter would die like this."
Susy's fate took the fateful turn when she started dating a drug cartel soldier.
It's all here in this report by Adriana Gomez Licon of The Associated Press
In July 1997, Kimberly McCarthy went to her neighbor's home in Lancaster to borrow a cup of sugar.
But according to evidence in her capital murder trial (her original mugshot is shown here), McCarthy wound up stabbing Dorothy Booth, 71, five times and then bludgeoned her with a large candle holder.
Next, she cut a finger off of Booth, a retired college professor (shown right), to take her diamond wedding ring.
According to The Associated Press, McCarthy drove Booth's Mercedes to Dallas, pawned the ring for $200 and then went to a crack house to buy some cocaine. Evidence also showed she used Booth's credit cards at a liquor store and was carrying the victim's driver's license, the AP reported.
McCarthy, who was sent to Texas' death row, is now 51 (her latest photo is at left).
She is set to die Jan. 29. because the U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review her case, according to the AP.
C. Wayne Huff, McCarthy's attorney, said the Supreme Court's decision was not unexpected and he would file a clemency request with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the AP reported.
"We're working on seeing if there are any other avenues we can take," he said.
-- Bill Miller
They said El Platanar de Los Ontiveros had become part of a dispute between the Sinaloa cartel controlled by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted man (shown here), and remnants of the Beltran-Leyva cartel who have allied themselves with the Zetas, a paramilitary organized-crime group founded by ex-members of the Mexican special forces.
The nine victims were eating Christmas dinner when gunmen entered the town on foot, surrounded them, and opened fire with assault rifles.
They decapitated one victim with a machete and dumped the bodies on field, officials said.
The army had set up a checkpoint nearby to hunt for drugs, but the killers had avoided it by entering the town on foot.
