Free Republic

CHILTON, Wis. - A man who spent 18 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit was convicted Sunday of murdering a photographer, whose charred bones were found in a burn pit outside his home. Steven Avery, 44, put his head down and shook it when the verdict was read. He faces a mandatory life prison term for killing Teresa Halbach, 25, on Halloween 2005 near his family's salvage yard. Halbach disappeared Oct. 31, 2005, after going to the yard in rural Manitowoc County to photograph a minivan that Avery's sister had for sale through Auto Trader Magazine. Avery...

LOS ANGELES Authorities announced Thursday an offensive against the Hispanic gang allegedly behind the racially charged shooting death of a 14-year-old black girl, the first part of what they said will be a major crackdown on street gangs this year. "We have a message to the gang leaders," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a news conference in the South Los Angeles neighborhood where Cheryl Green was killed. "We're coming with everything we have ... and we're putting you out of business." Green was shot Dec. 15, allegedly by a Hispanic gang bent on killing blacks following a confrontation between the...

A second reputed Hispanic gang member was arrested in connection with the shooting death of a 14-year-old black girl that police have described as a hate crime. Jonathan Fajardo, 18, was believed to be the gunman who opened fire on a group of black youngsters on Dec. 15 as they stood on a narrow street in the Harbor Gateway area, police said. Cheryl Green was killed and two other girls and a boy were wounded. Green was not a gang member. Family members said she wanted to be a doctor. Fajardo was arrested Thursday at his home in neighboring Carson,...

The siblings shared a tiny studio apartment that offered little privacy. One slept on a chair, the other on a couch in a room separated by a sheet. In these cramped quarters, police say, Kimberly Shine and her brother William A. Windsor argued frequently and with little provocation. Their final, fatal argument — which police said led to Windsor killing Shine with an ax — was over a pair of shorts. Shine, 38, became enraged when Windsor told her he had to wear shorts to an appointment the pair had Wednesday morning for help paying a utility bill because he...

The father of a man charged in the random slaying of a north Dallas office worker said Wednesday that he was confused and saddened by the accusation against his son. Police, acting on a tip, when to the northwest Dalls home of Jose Castro, 24, and took him in for questioning. Castro was formally arrested about 3:30 a.m. at police headquarters and then transferred to the Lew Sterrett Justice Center. He was in a Dallas County jail early Wednesday on a charge of capital murder with bail set at $750,000. Police said Castro also is wanted by the Immigration and...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen shot and killed a television comedian Monday who was famous for mocking everyone from the Iraqi government to U.S. forces to Shiite militias to Sunni insurgents. Walid Hassan's slaying came as the Iraqi death toll rose to more than 1,300 for the first 20 days of November — the highest for any month since The Associated Press began tracking the figure in April 2005. In all, 22 Iraqis were killed Monday in a series of attacks in Baghdad, Ramadi and Baqouba, police said. The bodies of 26 Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured also were...

OCEANSIDE, Calif. - Eager to see the world and looking for adventure, Jerry E. Shumate Jr. joined the Marine Corps straight out of high school. Now the 21-year-old lance corporal is in the brig. Shumate is accused, with eight others, of kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi man in Hamdania, west of Baghdad. His preliminary hearing was scheduled to begin Tuesday. Shumate, along with six other Marines and a Navy Corpsman are accused of entering 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad's house on April 26, kidnapping him and taking him to a roadside hole. There, prosecutors say, several troops shot him. Shumate fired...

Teen mails taped confession of father's slaying to paperAssociated Press Posted on Sat, Sep. 02, 2006 RALEIGH, N.C. - A man obsessed with the 1999 Columbine school attack made a videotape showing his father's bloody corpse and describing plans to attack his former high school, then mailed it to a newspaper which posted excerpts on its Web site. The release of the video late Thursday was the latest twist in the case, which began when Alvaro Castillo was arrested Wednesday in front of Orange High School in Hillsborough after multiple shots were fired from the parking lot. Two students suffered...

U.S., Iraqi troops nab insurgents suspected in mass slayingMore than a dozen rebels either caught or killed in Baqouba By Andrew Tilghman, Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Sunday, April 2, 2006 Maj. John Digiambattista inspects the anti-aircraft gun and other weapons found during the chase of several insurgents. Andrew Tilghman / S&S Iraqi villagers tell soldiers that the men captured and killed Friday were the same ones who massacred 18 Shiite villagers last week. Andrew Tilghman / S&S A car used by insurgents burns Friday after it is abandoned during a firefight with U.S. and Iraqi troops. Andrew Tilghman /...

LANCASTER, Pa. - An 18-year-old who's charged with killing his girlfriend's parents before fleeing with the 14-year-old girl is frightened and confused, his attorney said Wednesday. David Ludwig is being held without bail on murder and kidnapping charges after being flown back to Lancaster County on Tuesday from Indiana, where police captured him following a chase. His attorney, public defender Merrill M. Spahn, said he will ask for a postponement of a scheduled Nov. 23 preliminary hearing. "Over the coming days we will strive to determine what, in fact, occurred last Sunday morning and what may have led to these...

UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. investigation concluded that high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese security officials were involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, according to a report released Thursday. The report by chief investigator Detlev Mehlis said Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination was so complex that it would be difficult to imagine that the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services didn't know about it. The decision to assassinate Hariri "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security official and could not have been further organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2005 – Passion for his country, pride in his soldiers and acceptance of his own personal sacrifice are traits exuded by Col. Abbas Fadhil, the Iraqi military commander in Taji, Iraq, a senior Defense Department official recalled here after meeting him in Iraq. Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Allison Barber, who led a group of military analysts on a visit to Iraq the week of Oct. 17, said that in the first several months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the colonel began recruiting soldiers to join the new Iraq military. After he had been on television several...

SAO PAULO, Brazil - The rancher accused of ordering the slaying of American nun Dorothy Stang surrendered to police on Sunday, authorities said. Vitalmiro Moura, known as Bida, was taken into custody after turning himself in to federal police in Altamira, about 80 miles from where 73-year-old Stang was shot dead on Feb. 12, police said. Moura had been a fugitive since an arrest warrant was issued for him on Feb. 15.

A Glimpse Ahead Timothy Snodgrass The Impossible Will Come Alive In 2005 01/28/05 In January of 2004, as we began to intercede for the New Year the Holy Spirit gave us the prophetic slogan, "The Seas will Roar in 2004". This year we were given a new slogan, "The Impossible will come Alive in 2005". As the veil of darkness begins to come down over nations and regions, along with great shakings will come great breakthroughs; signs, wonders, healings and a spectacular release of miracles in impossible circumstances. This year, although we are ultimately poised to gain much ground, there...

U.S. Copts Association Decries Slaying By Muslim Extremists of Coptic-American Family Tue Jan 18,10:55 AM ET To: National Desk Contact: U.S. Copts Association Communications Office, 202-737-3660 WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The U.S. Copts Association express its outrage, shock, and disbelief at the atrocious murder of a Coptic-American couple and their two children in their New Jersey home after father Hossam Armanious expressed "strong Coptic beliefs" to Muslim extremists on an internet discussion forum. Armanious, a resident of heavily Coptic-populated Jersey City, was a frequent contributor to religious debates in chat rooms accessed through paltalk.com. The 47-year old Egyptian...

HAYWARD, Wis. Dec 29, 2004 — A man accused of opening fire on hunters who confronted him about trespassing, killing six of them and wounding two others, pleaded not guilty to the shootings Wednesday. Chai Soua Vang, 36, of St. Paul, Minn., waived his right to a preliminary hearing and will stand trial on six counts of murder and three of attempted murder.

Five days before 9/11, Charles Vincent bought his first Koran. Six weeks later, while smoke was still pouring from the remains of the World Trade Center, he formally converted to Islam in the mosque attached to the Islamic Cultural Center on 96th Street and Third Avenue in New York City. A blonde, blue-eyed 29-year-old from Torrance, California, he readily admits that he chose an unlikely moment to fall in love with the world's most newsworthy religion. But in the three years since, his devotion to Islam has only deepened. Like a growing number of white Americans and Europeans, he has...

LOWELL When police arrived at a Billerica home early yesterday morning after a brutal midnight stabbing, they found blood-splattered walls, a 12-inch butcher knife under the victim and several hypodermic needles one full of a "bloody substance'' on the floor nearby, according to court documents. Demont, who was also covered in blood, allegedly told police, "Juan had a knife and he was carving an apple. He jumped up and fell on the knife. I was trying to help him.''

Marine commanders in Iraq are investigating an incident in which a Marine apparently shot and killed a severely wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a mosque in Fallujah, a Pentagon official said last night. Images of the incident, captured Saturday on videotape by Kevin Sites, a freelance correspondent working for NBC News who is embedded with a Marine unit, were broadcast last night on several news networks. The videotape shows a squad of Marines entering the building and seeing several Iraqis lying against a wall, either dead or gravely wounded. One Marine shouts something about one Iraqi feigning death. The Marine...

PHILADELPHIA -- Third-year medical student Lea Sullivan walked out of a grocery store Sunday afternoon onto a busy sidewalk in one of the city's most vibrant neighborhoods, and met a savage, inexplicable end. A burly man in a ski mask attacked the former homecoming queen from behind, clubbing her in the head with a baseball bat and continuing to beat her after she fell. The attack lasted seconds -- a minute, tops. Although South Street was crowded with shoppers, no one tried to stop the attack.