Nevada corrections chief resigns post
RENO, Nev. -- The head of Nevada's Department of Corrections has resigned at the request of Gov. Steve Sisolak after an escape by a convicted bomb-maker that went unreported for four days.
Sisolak "requested and received Nevada Department of Corrections Director Charles Daniels' resignation, effective immediately," the governor's office said Friday. Six other officers have been placed on administrative leave.
Porfirio Duarte-Herrera escaped from the Southern Desert Correctional Center outside Las Vegas on Sept. 23 without anyone noticing for four days, before a tip led to his capture at a transit center in Las Vegas on Wednesday night as he prepared to board a bus out of town.
State corrections officials didn't realize until Tuesday that Duarte-Herrera was not at the medium-security prison where he was serving a life sentence for a deadly 2007 explosion outside a Las Vegas Strip resort.
Las Vegas police said they were informed Wednesday night that a person matching his description was in the area. Officers took the man into custody, confirmed he was Duarte-Herrera, 42, and arrested him, the department said.
Sisolak ordered the corrections department to investigate "to ensure any lapses in protocol are immediately addressed." He also said he is convening advisers to examine the prison and make recommendations on how to improve its conditions.
Colorado man faces espionage charges
DENVER -- A former National Security Agency employee from Colorado is accused of trying to sell classified information to a hostile foreign government in an attempt to pay off his debts and "help balance" the world's scales, according to court documents.
But while Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30, believed he was talking to a representative of a particular nation "with many interests that are adverse to the United States," he was actually talking to an undercover FBI agent, according to his arrest affidavit, released Thursday.
After initially sharing excerpts of classified documents and one full document this summer, Dalke was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly agreed to transmit more information using a secure connection that investigators had set up at Denver's train station.
Dalke, who is charged with three violations of the Espionage Act, appeared in Denver federal court Thursday. He is being represented by the federal public defender's office.
The arrest affidavit did not identify the country Dalke allegedly believed he was providing information to, but it noted that he speaks basic Spanish and Russian and that he tried to verify that the undercover agent was actually working for the foreign government, rather than "americans (sic) trying to stifle a patriot," by using a website for the Russian government's external intelligence agency.
Dalke, an Army veteran who lives in Colorado Springs, worked as an information systems security designer for the NSA -- the U.S. intelligence agency that collects and analyzes signals from foreign and domestic sources for the purpose of intelligence and counterintelligence -- for less than a month this summer, according to the affidavit.
NYC emergency worker fatally stabbed
NEW YORK -- A longtime emergency services worker who was killed in an unprovoked stabbing in New York City was planning to retire soon and spend more time with her family, the head of her union said.
Lt. Alison Russo-Elling was about six or seven months away from retirement, Vincent Variale, president of the uniformed EMS officers union, told reporters at the hospital where Russo-Elling died of her injuries Thursday.
Police announced Friday that Peter Zisopoulos, 34, was being charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the stabbing of Russo-Elling, a nearly 25-year veteran of the city's Fire Department who was among the first responders to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Russo-Elling, 61, was on duty when she was stabbed Thursday afternoon near her station in the Astoria section of Queens, authorities said.
She was heading to a corner store to get something to eat when Zisopoulos allegedly stabbed her multiple times, police said. He ran to his apartment and locked himself in, police said, but was arrested after he was eventually talked into coming out.
The motive is under investigation.
Shot in head killed Tennessee teacher
MEMPHIS -- The Tennessee kindergarten teacher who police say was kidnapped during a pre-dawn run and then killed last month died of a gunshot wound in the head, an autopsy showed.
Eliza Fletcher, 34, had a gunshot wound in the back of the head, blunt-force injuries to her right leg and jaw fractures, according to the autopsy completed by the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center in Memphis and released Thursday.
"There are two semicircular defects to the skull consistent with a single gunshot to the head with the bullet traveling in a posterior to anterior (back to front) and right to left direction," the report said.
Fletcher was running on the University of Memphis campus when she was forced into a vehicle after a struggle about 4 a.m. Sept 2. Police said her body was found Sept. 5 behind a vacant home after a police search.
Cleotha Henderson, who has also gone by the name Cleotha Abston, has been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping.