Tagged: Crime

A trial is set to begin today for a nurse charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who weighed 28 pounds when she died last year.

Mollie Parsons of Dayton also is charged with failing to provide for a functionally impaired person and tampering with records.

Authorities say Makayla Norman had bed sores and showed other signs of neglect when she died on March 1, 2011. They say 42-year-old Parsons and the girl's mother were supposed to care for the girl at the Normans' home.

Norman's mother has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges.

Authorities attributed the death to nutritional and medical neglect complicated by her chronic condition.

The Ohio Supreme Court has struck down a state law requiring juvenile sex offenders convicted in juvenile courts to register as sex offenders for life.

Today (Tuesday) the court ruled 5-2 that the requirement enacted in a 2007 law is unconstitutional because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and violates children's due process rights.

Justice Paul Pfeifer said the mandatory registration undercuts the rehabilitative purpose of the juvenile system.  He said it also eliminates the role of juvenile judges in determining the best punishment for young offenders.

The decision overturned the mandatory lifelong notification requirement imposed on a 15-year-old Athens County boy convicted in 2009 of juvenile charges of raping a 6-year-old male relative.

North Carolina authorities have charged 27 people with a variety of crimes stemming from what investigators
say was a Robeson County dog-fighting ring that drew participants from three other states.

State Alcohol Law Enforcement officers raided a home in Maxton on Saturday during the middle of what they say was a dog fight.  State and federal authorities seized 18 dogs, including some with serious wounds, along with tens of thousands of dollars and other paraphernalia.

Most of the suspects tried to flee on foot, but were caught, thanks partly to air support from a National Guard helicopter.

The suspects include people from South Carolina, Maryland and Ohio along with North Carolinians.

An Ohio teen has pleaded not guilty to killing one man and attempting to kill a second in a deadly Craigslist robbery scheme that targeted older and single out-of-work men.

Brogan Rafferty, his ankles and wrists cuffed, made a brief appearance Friday in adult felony court in Akron on charges originally filed in Noble County, where the case unfolded.

Rafferty, dressed in a white T-shirt and orange jail pants, also has been charged with three counts of aggravated murder in juvenile court in Summit County. Prosecutors eventually hope to merge the cases in adult court in Akron.

A magistrate continued Rafferty's $1 million bond. His attorney says Rafferty cannot afford it.

Ohio officials say the state is asking the U.S. Supreme Court for a ruling that Ohio's protocol for carrying out lethal injections is constitutional.

Gov. John Kasich and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a statement yesterday that the state will ask the high court to reverse a federal appeals court decision delaying the Wednesday execution of Charles Lorraine.

Lorraine was condemned to death in the 1986 slaying of a Trumbull County couple. But the federal appeals court agreed his execution should be delayed to review changes Ohio's made to lethal injection procedures.

Lorraine argued that Ohio broke its promise to adhere strictly to its execution procedures. The state said any deviation to the protocol was minor and does not violate an inmate's rights.