Mississippian guilty in 2 nuns' slayings
LEXINGTON, Miss. -- A Mississippi man on Thursday admitted killing two Roman Catholic nuns in a plea agreement that allowed him to avoid the death penalty, which was opposed by the women's families and their religious orders.
Rodney Earl Sanders made the pleas to two counts of murder in state court in Lexington, blocks away from where Margaret Held and Paula Merrill had worked as nurse practitioners in a medical clinic.
Holmes County Circuit Judge Jannie Lewis gave the 48-year-old Sanders two life-without-parole sentences, plus 30 more years for burglary and car theft, accepting a recommendation from District Attorney Akillie Malone-Oliver.
Sanders stabbed to death Held and Merrill in the home they shared in nearby Durant in 2016. He also pleaded guilty Thursday to burglarizing the house and stealing Held's car. Sanders also was indicted on charges of raping both women, but did not admit guilt on those charges Thursday.
Sanders had been staying in a shed across the street from the nuns. Sanders told investigators he went in through the back door. The motive for the crime has never been clear.
25th embassy worker in Cuba falls ill
Another U.S. Embassy employee in Cuba has been affected by mysterious health symptoms consistent with those suffered by at least two dozen workers at the Havana compound, the State Department said Thursday.
Confirmation of the symptoms in a 25th embassy employee -- who was one of two workers medically evacuated from Havana -- brings investigators no closer to determining the cause of the incidents, which began in late 2016.
The second employee evacuated from Cuba is still being evaluated, said department spokesman Heather Nauert. Before this incident, the last time an embassy worker was known to have been affected was in August of 2017.
U.S. authorities are still investigating the cases in Cuba as well as one in China where an employee at a U.S. Consulate experienced similar symptoms. The Cuban government has denied any involvement.
Suspect, 22, charged in rapper's death
POMPANO BEACH, Fla.-- A 22-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged with murder days after the killing of rising rap star XXXTentacion, who was fatally shot in his luxury BMW electric car as he left a Florida dealership.
Dedrick Devonshay Williams of Pompano Beach was arrested shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday after a traffic stop, the Broward County sheriff's office said Thursday.
Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, 20, who went by the stage name pronounced "Ex Ex Ex ten-ta-see-YAWN," was gunned down Monday, ending a brief music career that was marked by controversy and arrests.
Authorities said the rapper was ambushed by two gunmen. They did not give a motive in announcing Williams' arrest but had previously said it was a robbery attempt.
Williams, charged with first-degree murder without premeditation, is being held without bail.
Court: Sniper due resentencing hearings
RICHMOND, Va. -- A convicted sniper serving life in prison for terrorizing the Washington, D.C., region as a teenager must get new sentencing hearings in Virginia, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The 3-0 decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denies an appeal by prosecutors who said they already complied with the requirements of the U.S. Supreme Court, which found in a series of rulings after Lee Boyd Malvo was sentenced that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for young offenders are unconstitutional.
Malvo was 17 when he and his mentor, John Allen Muhammad, fatally shot 10 people they targeted at random in Virginia, Maryland and Washington in 2002.
Muhammad was sentenced to death and executed in Virginia in 2009. Malvo received multiple life-without-parole sentences in Virginia and Maryland.
The 4th Circuit found Malvo's Virginia sentences must be vacated, upholding the decision of a lower court judge. Thursday's ruling applies only to Malvo's four life sentences in Virginia. A Maryland judge denied new sentencing hearings last year for Malvo in those cases.
A Section on 06/22/2018