Crime Time

Fort Hood soldier killed in 'hiccup' cure

A young soldier stationed at Fort Hood died after a buddy allegedly tried gunfire to stop the victim's  hiccups.

Spc. Patrick Edward Myers apparently pointed a gun at the victim's head to scare him and stop the hiccups.

Myers was jailed for manslaughter.

Read more in this story from The Associated Press.

 

Testimony: Dad said devil killed his toddler son

A Philadelphia father blamed the death of his toddler son on the devil after he and his wife prayed rather than seek medical treatment for their sick child, a social worker testified on Wednesday.

When questioned about the death, the social worker said the father told him:  "We tried to fight the devil, but in the end the devil won."

Herbert Schaible and his wife, Catherine, are being tried for involuntary manslaughter in the death of their 2-year-old son, who prosecutors said died after having bacterial pneumonia for two weeks without treatment, the Associated Press reported.

-- Lance Murray

Margarita manslaughter: Woman imprisoned for killing with tainted mix

A New York woman has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for killing her boyfriend with antifreeze-laced margaritas.

Cynthia Galens had tainted a jug of margarita mix that Thomas Stack drank. He died four days later, the Associated Press reported.

Galens told investigators she had been emotionally and physically abused by Stack and that she was seeking revenge -- but had only intended to make him sick.

She was convicted of manslaughter in September, the AP reported.

-- Lance Murray

Human traffickers charged in death of beaten baby boy

As if they didn't have enough trouble already, a couple of human traffickers in New York City face manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges in the death of a baby.

Domingo Salazar and his wife, Norman Mendez, had pleaded guilty to human trafficking for taking the baby's teenage mother from Mexico and forcing her into prostitution in New York. The baby was Salazar's son with the Mexican teenager, the Associated Press reported.

The 3-month-old boy died, prosecutors said, after the couple failed to get him medical attention after he was beaten, the AP reported.

-- Lance Murray

Millionaire slain, dismembered and burned over swinger sex

A millionaire businessman.Swinger sex. Dark secrets. A dismembered body.

No, it's not the ingredients for an episode of "Criminal Minds," but rather a real-life murder story that's played out in Australia.

The case involves the death of multimillionaire businessman and Harvard graduate Herman Rockefeller, who was killed and his body dismembered after he arrived at a swinger's rendezvous in Melbourne in January without a partner, the New Zealand Herald reports.

Police say that Mario Schembri, 58, was upset at that and punched Rockefeller, 51, who then fell to ground, struck his head, and died.

Schembri and his girlfriend, Bernadette Denny, 42, have pleaded guilty and sentenced to prison for manslaughter in the case.

Schembri used a chainsaw to dismember Rockefeller's body and he then burned it in a 44-gallon drum in a friend's backyard, according to the report.

-- Lance Murray

Trucker was watching porn when he slammed car, killing woman

He admitted he was watching pornography on his laptop computer as he drove and said he had had little sleep when his big rig crashed into a disabled car last year on a New York highway, killing a 33-year-old mother.

Thomas M. Wallace, tearfully apologized in a Batavia, N.Y., court and was then sentenced to three to nine years in prison in a state prison.

"Your conduct on this day, I can't think of any other way to say it, was just grossly, grossly irresponsible," Judge Robert C. Noonan told the crowd in the hushed courtroom, the Buffalo News reported.

-- Lance Murray

Police: Pursued woman crashes into minivan, killing four

Police in San Antonio say they've arrested a 38-year-old woman who they say crashed during a police pursuit into a minivan, killing four members of one family.

Among the dead were a woman, her mother, her sister and her infant son dead, the Associated Press reported.

The accused driver, Valerie Andrews, is charged with four counts of intoxication manslaughter, the AP reported. She also faces one count each of evading arrest, theft, failure to identify herself and driving without a valid license.

Officers were pursuing Andrews Sunday evening after she reportedly drove through a red light, the AP reported. According to reports Andrews was speeding down a side street in an SUV when it slammed into the minivan, the AP reported.

-- Lance Murray

'Bad doctor' convicted of manslaughter for botched operations

A jury in Australia has convicted an American doctor on three counts of manslaughter for a string of botched surgeries he performed as the chief of surgery at a hospital.

Sixty-year-old Jayant Patel was ordered taken into custody following the verdicts.

Questions about his competency first arose 25 years ago, The Associated Press reported.

During the trial, the jury was told that Patel had been banned in the United States from performing certain procedures and that when he moved to Australia, he failed to inform his new employers of the restrictions.

Prosecutor Ross Martin told the jury that Patel was a "bad surgeon motivated by ego,"  The AP reported.

-- Lance Murray

Teen convicted in hate killing of Ecuadorian immigrant

A man in New York has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2008 hate crime killing of an immigrant for Ecuador who was targeted by a gang of men who were "beaner hopping," a derogatory term they used for hunting Latinos who would not fight back.

Jeffrey Conroy, 19, earlier this year was convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime, but was not found guilty of murder as a hate crime, a more serious charge. He also was convicted of gang assault and conspiracy.

Conroy was among a group of seven men who attacked Marcelo Lucero and a companion. According to testimony Lucero resisted the gang's attack and was stabbed by Conroy.

When the sentence was announced, Conroy's father jumped to his feet and screamed at the judge. He had to be escorted from the courtroom and held in a room to gain control of himself, according to reports.

-- Lance Murray

Report: Teen rationalized crash victim's death with 'she was old'

On Tuesday, we wrote about the horrible crash on Long Island in which a 69-year-old retired doctor was killed when an out-of-control van jumped the curb and literally mowed down the doctor as she was mowing her lawn.

The van was driven by a drug-addled 18-year-old woman, who later admitted being on "prescription pills," police said.

The New York Post reported today that the teen had a twisted way of seeing the bright side of the crash.

"The thing that made me not feel so bad was, she was old," Kayla Gerdes reportedly told investigators after she was arrested in the death of Rebecca Twine Wright.

According to the Post, police said that Gerdes was high on the painkiller OxyContin, and that when she stepped from the wrecked van she demanded that that a passer-by help her get to the courthouse.

"I'm late for court. You have to take me to court!" she said, according to a criminal complaint quoted by the newspaper. Gerdes was scheduled to appear for on allegations that she stole her mother's jewelry.

Gerdes was driving in the opposite direction of the Nassau County courthouse, however, the Post reported.

-- Lance Murray