Kyle Carlisle Brett, who would have turned 22 next week, was shot and killed behind the wheel of his car Wednesday night in a Falconridge alley that opens onto Grant MacEwan Elementary School.
Yellow crime scene tape and uniformed police searching the school's field for a murder weapon struck a disturbing image for students and parents Thursday.Rosalie Allard, whose son is a Grade 2 student at the school, said she debated whether to take him to classes Thursday morning after she heard about the shooting."I phoned over and talked to the principal, and they said that he would be safe," she said.Police say they're hoping people close to Brett will come forward to tell them about his lifestyle."He's a victim.Somebody has taken his life, a family is mourning his loss and it's our job to find who's responsible," said Acting Staff Sgt. Patty McCallum of the homicide unit.According to Alberta Justice, Brett had a criminal record; he most recently pleaded guilty to drug charges in June.He originally faced two drug charges -- simple possession and possession for the purpose of trafficking-- stemming from an incident in March.As a result, he was banned from owning a cellphone or drug paraphernalia, but was later charged with breaching those orders.Brett pleaded guilty to the breaches and both drug charges, but the trafficking charge was dropped to possession and he was fined $1,250.It's too early for police to declare whether the shooting is random or if Brett was targeted, "but there's not a lot of evidence to suggest it's random," said McCallum. "Whether it is gang-related, I can't say with certainty."Police wouldn't say if they found any items in Brett's car that would lead them to believe he was in the middle of a drug transaction.Police say they are confident they will gain a clearer picture of what happened to Brett in his final hours.The drama unfolded Wednesday night after three teenage boys yelled for help."They were yelling saying, 'My friend's been shot,' " said Myrna Erickson, who lives across the street from the school on Falshire Drive."They were panicking."He was found alone slumped in the driver's seat of his parked car in a darkened alley.Erickson said she worries about drug activity in the neighbourhood and says she's frequently approached by drug dealers."The sad part about it is this is so close to an elementary school."Allard added the recent string of violence around the city means all Calgary citizens--whether in the northeast or elsewhere--are at risk of being affected."It can happen in anybody's neighbourhood," Allard said.Brett's death is the 11th homicide of the year in Calgary.

Jail records show 21-year-old Jontae Robert Chatman of Kent, was booked into the jail just after 10 p.m. on investigation of first-degree attempted murder and is being held on $2 million bail. The suspect was accompanied by his laywer, said King County sheriff's spokesman, Sgt. John Urquhart. fourth suspect wanted in connection with a brazen shooting at a SeaTac intersection during Tuesday's rush hour showed up at the King County Jail Saturday night to turn himself in.Three other men were arrested last week in connection with the shooting, which injured two men, one of whom is "clinging to life" at Harborview Medical Center, Urquhart said.Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, a Cadillac was ambushed as it waited at a red light at South 188th Street and International Boulevard. A gunman standing on the sidewalk fired at least 20 rounds from an assault rifle into the Cadillac, critically injuring the driver and seriously wounding his front-seat passenger. A woman and her 2-year-old son were in the back seat but were not hit.After the shooting, the gunman jumped into a Ford Taurus that then sped away. Detectives have not yet said which suspect is believed to have fired into the Cadillac.
The driver of the Taurus suffered a serious groin injury after one of his cohorts accidentally shot him with a handgun, Urquhart said. The 20-year-old Seattle man was dropped off at a Renton hospital and later taken to Harborview Medical Center. He recovered enough from his injury to be booked into the King County Jail late Wednesday night.A 21-year-old SeaTac man was arrested in Burien on Friday morning. Then, just before noon on Friday, a 21-year-old Seattle man was arrested in central Idaho by local authorities. King County detectives were to interview the man in Idaho. He is awaiting extradition to Washington.Like Chatman, the other suspects are also being held on $2 million bail for investigation of first-degree attempted murder, Urquhart said. He said prosecutors are expected to file charges against the four men this week.

Master Sergeant John E. Hatley, 40, is charged with premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and obstruction of justice, according to an army statement. Hatley currently serves with the 172nd Infantry Brigade in Schweinfurt Bavaria, and is to face trial at the Rose Barracks Courthouse, near the town of Vilseck.The charges are related to the killings of prisoners in March or April 2007 near Baghdad. An exact date has not been established and the bodies, which witnesses have said were pushed into a canal, were never found.Two other non-commissioned officers - Sergeant Michael Leahy, a medic, and Sergeant First Class Joseph Mayo - have already been found guilty of taking part in the killings and sentenced to life and 35 years in prison, respectively. Both will eventually become eligible for parole.
Hatley’s lawyer David Court told AFP last week his client would plead not guilty to the “unusual allegation of pre-meditated murder” and added, “The government has no evidence, they just have witness testimony.”According to testimony from Mayo’s trial, at which he pleaded guilty, all three sergeants shot the prisoners in the back of the head with nine-millimetre pistols.Mayo, 27, said, “I really believed I was protecting my soldiers,” because he believed the men, who he said were captured in possession of assault rifles and a duffel bag full of ammunition, would mount attacks on US troops in the future.Two sniper rifles were also found nearby and the US unit, which belonged to the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, then part of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, had seen a sergeant killed by a sniper a few weeks earlier.Mayo testified that Hatley had not forced either of the other two sergeants to shoot the detainees, and that a check with his unit found “they did not have an issue” with the decision.
The soldiers were posted at a combat outpost dubbed “Angry Dragon” on what one witness called a “fault line” between Shiite and Sunni fighters in West Rashid, one of the most violent Baghdad neighbourhoods at that time.The exposed post was subject to repeated attacks but rules of engagement often resulted in prisoners being released after a few days, armed with updated intelligence on US methods.That bred “frustration and fear”, according to Captain David Nelson-Fischer, a witness at Mayo’s trial.Nelson-Fischer also said in a statement read by a defence lawyer that US troops were unprepared for the explosive situation in which fighters from the Mahdi Army, a Shiite paramilitary group, were driving Sunnis from the area.A total of seven US soldiers were implicated in the case, but only the three sergeants have been tried for murder.Two soldiers have pleaded guilty to lesser charges and been sentenced to prison terms of less than a year, an army spokeswoman said.Charges were dismissed against two others, including Staff Sergeant Jess Cunningham, who first revealed the killings to a lawyer in January 2008.

Police spent the morning scouring the near West Side searching for Davon Crawford, who they believe killed his new wife, her sister and three children Thursday night inside a home on West 89th Street.
Members of the Cleveland police and Cuyahoga County SWAT teams as well as the State Highway Patrol have travelled to several homes, following leads on the whereabouts of Crawford, 33. They have also summoned a heavy-duty assault vehicle used in police standoffs.
Police said they believe Crawford fled the house on foot last night, but are unsure whether he stayed in the area. A 13-year-old boy who police believe Crawford also shot remains hospitalized. Crawford's two-month old daughter was also inside the duplex when the shooting started but was unharmed, police said.33-year-old Davon Crawford his wife, Lechea, was among those killed in their house Thursday night. Police say a 2-month-old baby found unharmed in the home is believed to be theirs. A relative said the Crawfords had married on Monday.The other victims killed were Lechea Crawford's sister Rose Stevens, and Stevens' three children: 4-year-old Destiny Woods and 2-year-old twins Dion and Davion Primm.

suspected crack house in Surrey was sprayed with bullets Thursday night, but nobody was injured in the Lower Mainland's latest shooting.It was the fifth shooting in Surrey and the eighth across the Lower Mainland since Tuesday evening in what police describe as a violent turf war for control of the region's illegal drug trade.
Mounties said residents living near 125th Street and 62A Avenue reported hearing shots just before 9:30 p.m. and seeing a dark van speeding away after the shooting.Surrey RCMP Insp. Darren Lench said police found some evidence of drug activity inside the rental home and a lot of shell casings on the road outside, but did not find the vehicle and made no arrests.He said the incident might be connected to a series of tit-for-tat shootings related to the local drug trade."It just seems at times, an eye for an eye, so if it happens in one respect, they somehow have to pay back the other way," said Lench.

At least 20 inmates died inside the high security area of a prison in the border city of Ciudad Juarez yesterday in what looks to have been a massacre carried out by members of one gang against rivals.This is the latest of a series of bloodbaths in Mexican jails that have killed 83 prisoners in six months. They are associated with the drug wars outside which killed over 6,000 in 2008 and well over 1,000 so far this year.The different cartels are fighting each other for supremacy in strategic cities and states around the country, as well as fighting an unprecedented military-led crackdown launched by president Felipe Calderón two years ago. Juarez, just over the border from El Paso, Texas, is currently the most violent front in the wider war."The external conflict is being transferred to inside the prisons," said Enrique Torres, spokesman of the federal government's security operation in Juarez. "Organised crime looks for any space it can fill."
Torres said that the massacre started shortly after 6am when 14 members of a gang calling itself the Aztecas were escorted back to their cells after conjugal visits. Arriving at their module in a relatively low-security part of the building, they produced knives and forced the guards to unlock about 150 fellow gang members.Taking the wardens hostage, the Aztecas went directly to the high-security block and forced guards to open cells containing members of rival gangs called the Mexicles and the Artistas Asesinos. They then set about killing them.Some of the victims were murdered with the knives, others beaten to death and others killed with a home-made gun, Torres said.Local media reported several corpses where thrown from the roof of the three story prison, while the terrified family members crowded outside the prison gates looked on.The situation was eventually brought under control three hours after it started. Around 200 special forces agents from the militarised federal police, 50 soldiers, two helicopters, a plane, and unspecified numbers of state and municipal police were involved in the operation.

high-ranking prison gang member whose violent history included an attack on an inmate with a homemade spear was headed to the Texas death chamber Thursday night for fatally injecting a fellow prisoner with an overdose of heroin.Ricardo Ortiz would be the second condemned killer executed in Texas in as many nights and the fifth this year in the nation's most active death penalty state.
Ortiz, 46, was sentenced to die for the slaying of Gerardo Garcia, 22, who authorities said was killed at the El Paso County jail more than 11 years ago. The slaying was in retaliation for snitching on Ortiz and so he couldn't testify against Ortiz about bank robberies the pair were suspected of carrying out, authorities said.Ortiz sought to put off the execution so he could get federal money to pay for legal representation to file a state clemency request. His appeal, however, was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court about two hours before he was scheduled to die.The appeal issue is under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard arguments in January in the case of Tennessee death row inmate John Harbison. Similar appeals from other condemned inmates hoping to delay their punishments until the justices resolved the Tennessee case so far have failed.State attorneys had opposed the request to the courts, contending even if Ortiz presented a clemency petition to the governor, it likely would fail."The facts of his capital crime ... make Ortiz the 'poster child' for future dangerousness: his victim was a fellow inmate," the Texas Attorney General's Office said in a court filing.Another late appeal rejected Thursday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals contended Ortiz's constitutional rights were violated because prosecutors said he was affiliated with the Texas Syndicate, a well-known primarily Hispanic prison gang.
A sergeant in El Paso County Sheriff's Department described Ortiz as the highest-ranking Texas Syndicate member in El Paso and that Ortiz's status made him the "tank boss" in the jail, putting him in control of other gang members there.Ortiz declined to speak with reporters in the weeks preceding his execution date. He had a long criminal history that included robbery, aggravated robbery, burglary and possessing deadly weapons in prison, including a homemade spear used to stab a fellow inmate. Records show he was known as "Serrucho," Spanish for "Handsaw.""All the Texas Syndicate guys in the county jail were in the same tank and the young man killed was one of them," Joe Rosales, the former district attorney who prosecuted Ortiz, recalled last week. "From what we found out, he was a prospect, somebody to be brought into the gang but was not a full-fledged member at that time."We were able to persuade the jury, and we felt evidence showed, that he felt this prospect was going to implicate him in some robberies that had been taking place.Defense attorneys tried to show jurors Garcia had a death wish and was considering suicide.Garcia and Ortiz were allowed to see one another being interviewed by FBI agents investigating a series of unsolved bank robberies, hoping each would assume the other was cooperating. Neither man would budge, however, and both were placed in the same area of the El Paso Detention Center, where Garcia was found dead in 1997 of a heroin injection three times more potent than the amount that could kill him.Other jail inmates testified Ortiz obtained the drug the previous day and injected Garcia, saying his bank robbery partner had to die for implicating him.Evidence also showed Ortiz was arrested in 1990 but never tried for in the execution-style slayings of two Houston-area parolees, Anthony Rosalio Acosta, 42, and Jimmy Lopez Rangel, 29, whose bodies were found in the desert near Fabens, southeast of El Paso.

Ortiz's execution was scheduled for 24 hours after Virgil Martinez, 41, a former Houston security guard, was put to death for gunning down four people, including his ex-girlfriend and her two small children, during a 1996 shooting frenzy in Brazoria County.

Next week, condemned prisoner David Martinez is set to die Wednesday for the 1994 slayings of his live-in girlfriend, Carolina Prado, 37, and her son, Erik, 14, at their home in San Antonio. Both victims were fatally beaten with a baseball bat.

Gardai have arrested a man in his 50s in connection with the double gangland murder in Dublin's north inner city earlier this month.
The man was detained this morning in connection with the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Michael Cronin and 26-year-old James Moloney in the Summerhill area on January 7th.He is being questioned at Store Street Garda Station, where he can be held for up to 72 hours before he must be charged or released.Five other people were arrested in connection with the shooting last week, but all were later released without charge.

20-year-old Daniel Lopez, who police say is a known gang member, was charged with attempted murder Wednesday. They say back on January 16, he opened fire at a vigil for 14-year-old Danny Rodriguez. A 19-year-old man was hurt in that shooting. The arrest of Daniel Lopez offers little relief to the people who call Lompoc home. That's because it is believed the person who killed 14-year-old Danny Rodriguez is still at large.Lompoc police Sergeant Danny Rios said, "We don't believe he's responsible for the first one, at this point. We're still looking into that."
Since the January 14 shooting of Danny Rodriguez, 11 search warrants have been issued to known gang members in the community.Most everyone who lives in this city of more than 41,000, knows about the recent shootings.Devon Miller has lived in Lompoc his whole life. He says the city can be a dangerous place."I remember when people were just getting stabbed and not shot and then like 'Oh, it was just a stabbing.' Everybody was like all afraid, and like now, people are getting shot and then they're like, 'Oh this is getting really serious,' said Miller.Miller adds that even riding a bike around his neighborhood can be risky.Miller said, "It's pretty scary. That's why my mom, even though I'm 18 she wants me in at the latest at 10:30." Officers say the city's gang task force is making progress in the fight to end gang violence but it's a difficult battle.Sergeant Rios said, "A lot of the older gang members are in custody. Now we're dealing with sometimes second and third generation, you know the younger up and comers, and now we're attacking that problem as well."Investigators say since those search warrants were issued they have learned some valuable information that is helping with their case.Officers say investigating gang related crimes is difficult because many people are afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation.

Police in New Jersey say they have put some of Newark's most dangerous criminals behind bars. The arrests were part of a gang sweep Thursday morning at several locations. Authorities say Nafee Wilson is just of one of the nearly two dozen alleged members of a notorious set of the Bloods gang taken into custody.
A barbershop called "The Hood" was the alleged base of the operation, though the owner adamantly disagrees. Prosecutors say the ring leaders, all in their mid-30s, are considered to be upper-level dealers distributing several hundred grams of cocaine and a 100 bricks of heroin each week in an area were residents fear for their safety.

John and Rob Dawes were the generals of the Dawes Cartel, based in the Mansfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield areas. They ran a multi-million-pound drugs empire from a small house in Tudor Street, Sutton-in-Ashfield.
Like his pal Colin Gunn, John Dawes eschewed life within the legitimate working world. From 1991 until his arrest in 2005, there is no evidence that John Dawes did a single day's legitimate work.
He lived almost exclusively, according to his own accounts, as a jobless man claiming benefits.
His hot-headed brother Rob was operating from Spain from 2002 onwards, organising shipments of cannabis resin and cocaine, while the rest of the gang organised wholesale deliveries of amphetamines and heroin, mainly from Liverpool and Runcorn.
Until 2001, they operated almost undetected. Then police in Nottinghamshire launched Operation Normality with the help of the National Crime Squad and customs investigators.
By 2003, it would receive additional resources with the sanctioning of Operation Starburst by law enforcement agencies in London.
It found that the Dawes Cartel was made up of three generals: John and Rob Dawes and Gary Hardy, another Mansfield man whose father had been the high up the command chain of a Midlands Hell's Angels chapter.
By 2001, this close-knit group was importing so many drugs that they had a backlog, so they began to bury large amounts underground in coded locations in woodland in Sutton-in-Ashfield.
On 1 June 2001, investigators made their first major inroad into the gang when they discovered a drugs production unit at Colwick. They were staggered by the scale of the operation and three middle-men were arrested.
John and Rob Dawes flew out to Malaga with some haste the same month.
John flew back to the UK in September 2001.
Police just kept watching.
A National Crime Squad investigation revealed links between large-scale drugs shipments flowing from Spain, Holland and Belgium and the cartels runs by the Dawes family and the Bestwood Cartel.
All roads were leading back to Nottinghamshire and southern Spain, where Rob Dawes was still holed up.
Officers began to take a closer look at the financial transactions of the gang. They found more than £8.5m going through their hands between November 2002 and June 2003. In addition, members of the gang were logged on more than 40 flights coming in and out of Malaga and Amsterdam over a two-and-a-half year period.
Arrests began to take place in 2003 and, crucially, four runners were 'turned', giving detailed accounts of how the Cartel operated.
One told how he had been beaten senseless by John Dawes with a baseball bat on two occasions.
By late spring 2003, the Dawes Cartel began to unravel as John Dawes himself was arrested. Having lost many of his troops, he had been forced to get hands-on. On 23 May 2003, the police saw his fellow boss Gary Hardy driving a black Porsche near Sutton-in-Ashfield.
It pulled up and John Dawes got into the vehicle for a short time and then got out with a carrier bag. Officers arrested him and found the bag contained £14,000. Other members of the gang were also rounded up, including John's father Arthur Dawes, his girlfriend, Rebecca Bridge and Ryan Smith, who had been acting as one of John Dawes's lieutenants.
Over nine weeks, a jury heard details of how John and Rob Dawes headed a ruthless organisation making more than £1m a month from the illegal drugs trade.
John Dawes, his father Arthur, Rebecca Bridge and Ryan Smith were all convicted for their parts in the operation. John Dawes was jailed for 24 years, Smith for 14 years, Arthur Dawes for eight and Bridge for four.
Rob Dawes and Gary Hardy remained at large, but police felt sure it would only be a matter of time before they tripped up.
No sooner had police dealt with John Dawes than they began to set their sights on Hardy.
Hardy went to trial in June 2008 accused of conspiring to supply heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis. The trial was held under the tightest security ever seen at Nottingham Crown Court.
One of the witnesses was Jonathan Guest, one of the gang's lieutenants. He had pleaded guilty in 2002 to conspiracy to supply amphetamines and cannabis and possessing £150,000 of heroin.
He was still serving his twelve-year sentence in 2006 when he decided to approach a solicitor and then got in touch with Crimestoppers.
Guest told the courtroom how he was kidnapped and 'moulded' into the organisation, sent on drug runs and left in charge of the amphetamine factory in Colwick.
Hardy himself had a fleet of luxury cars which could not have come from his legitimate business dealings.
In August 2008, after a three-month trial, the jury came back with guilty verdicts against Hardy. The forty-five-year-old was found guilty of conspiracy to supply heroin and amphetamines, money-laundering and possession of criminal property. He was jailed for twenty years.
Rob Dawes was eventually arrested in Dubai and, at the time of writing, awaits extradition to Spain, where he is due to face charges in connection with a £14m cocaine haul. The Dutch police and Notts Police still want to talk to him about drug shipments and a murder.

Shawn Nguyen bragged that he could sneak anything past airport security using his top-secret clearance as a federal air marshal. And for months, he smuggled cocaine and drug money onto flights across the country, boasting to an FBI informant that he was "the man with the golden badge."Michael McGowan used his position as an air marshal to lure a young boy to his hotel room, where he showed him child porn, took pictures of him naked and sexually abused him.And when Brian "Cooter" Phelps wanted his ex-wife to disappear, he called a fellow air marshal and tried to hire a hit man nicknamed "the Crucifixer."Since 9/11, more than three dozen federal air marshals have been charged with crimes, and hundreds more have been accused of misconduct, an investigation by ProPublica has found. Cases range from drunken driving and domestic violence to aiding a human trafficking ring and trying to smuggle explosives from Afghanistan.The Federal Air Marshal Service presents the image of an elite undercover force charged with making split-second decisions that could mean the difference between stopping a terrorist and shooting an innocent passenger.
But an examination of police reports, court records, government reports, memos and e-mails shows that 18 air marshals have been charged with felonies, including at least three who were hired despite prior criminal records or being fired from law enforcement jobs. A fourth air marshal was hired while under FBI investigation. Another stayed on the job despite alarming a flight attendant with his behavior.
This spring, after U.S. embassies, airlines and foreign police agencies complained about air marshal misconduct overseas, the agency director dispatched supervisors on international missions

Richard Fredrick Desnomie, wanted on a Canada-wide warrant.Desnomie, 28, is wanted for breach of his statutory release. He is described as aboriginal, 5-foot-10, 166 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.Police believe Desnomie may be armed and consider him dangerous.No information about the sentence or charges for which Desnomie had been serving was provided by police. Statutory release is a legislated release that comes two-thirds into an offender's federal sentence.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Desnomie, or who spots him, is advised not to approach him but contact the Regina Police

Caprecio Patterson's attorney said in September his client was going to use an alibi defense.However at a court hearing Friday, Patterson made no mention of an alibi but rather admitted guilt.The 30-year-old Patterson pleaded guilty to delivery of crack cocaine, in exchange for which another charge was dropped. Circuit Judge Cynthia Raccuglia then sentenced Patterson -- per Patterson's agreement with prosecutor Ryan Cantlin -- to nine years in prison. The sentencing range permitted by law was between four and 15 years in prison; probation was not an option because of the amount of cocaine involved."I do indeed wish you good luck," Raccuglia told Patterson, just before Patterson shuffled from the courtroom and back to the county jail to await transfer to prison next week.Patterson's case began in spring 2005, when he was charged with selling more than six grams of crack cocaine for $300 to an informant working with the state police drug task force. Police paid the informant $1,000 for his work.A prosecutor described Patterson as having been a "heavy player" in the Streator drug scene, who investigators had been trailing for four years.A jury found Patterson guilty in August 2005 and Raccuglia sentenced him the following November to 12 years in prison. As that sentence stood, Patterson had been set for parole Feb. 1, 2011.However, Patterson took his case to Third District Appellate Court in Ottawa, where justices ruled the prosecution did not give material to Patterson and his attorney -- material prosecutors later used at trial against Patterson -- as required through the legal process known as discovery. With his conviction overturned, Patterson was removed from prison and returned to the La Salle County Jail to await new proceedings.Patterson's attorney at his 2005 trial was public defender Tim Cappellini. However, after he won his appeal, he hired Aurora attorney and former judge, Fred Morelli Jr. The 67-year-old Morelli also ran for judge this year as a Republican in Kane County, but lost.Patterson has already been in custody for more than three years, time which will be subtracted from his new nine-year sentence. He will also be eligible for good behavior reductions in prison that will likely subtract more than four years, meaning he could be released in about one year.A relative of Patterson's, 22-year-old Demetrius Patterson, was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the 2005 cocaine deal. Around the same time in Cook County, Demetrius was also sentenced to three years in prison for robbery. Demetrius has since left prison, but was arrested in two separate incidents in June in Ottawa on complaints of battery and trespass. In the trespass case, he was accused of refusing to leave the courthouse on Etna Road.

David Joseph Ouellette, 38, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Douglas James Edgett, 25, who was found shot to death in February 1991.Frances Edgett wiped away tears outside a courtroom Friday after the appearance of a man charged in two unsolved killings in New Brunswick, including the murder of her son.Edgett said she always held out hope an arrest would be made in the case.
"I'm glad charges were laid," Edgett said as she left the courtroom in Moncton.
Ouellette was also charged with manslaughter in the death of Cheryl Pyne, 28, who disappeared more than four years ago.Her remains have never been found.Ouellette pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge, but has not yet entered a plea on the murder charge. He has elected to stand trial by judge and jury in both cases.
He showed no emotion during the brief court appearance.Outside court, Ouellette's lawyer, James Matheson, said his client is in penitentiary in Renous, N.B., serving a 10-year sentence for assault causing bodily harm. He still has seven years left to serve in that sentence.Douglas Edgett, who was reported missing Feb. 21, 1991, was supposed to testify in an assault trial in which he was the victim.A snowmobiler found the his body face down in the snow in a wooded area north of Moncton two days after he was reported missing.Frances Edgett said the accused was a friend of her son, adding that she believes drugs had something to do with his murder.
"He was a good boy, working every day until my husband got killed, then he went on drugs," she said.Pyne, who lived in Moncton, was last seen in June 2004, 11 months before her mother was found murdered near Stilesville, N.B., in what police said was an unrelated crime.RCMP Cpl. Mike Gaudet said police decided to lay the manslaughter charge even though Cheryl Pyne's remains were never found."The investigators are confident right now that they have enough evidence to support a charge ... so the investigation is still ongoing in regards to the body," he told a news conference.
Police said all three knew each other, but they would not elaborate.Gaudet said while the files remained open on the unsolved cases, the charges resulted from new information that came to light in recent months.
"The investigators revealed to me that they reviewed the case in its entirety, along with this new information, and were able to support the evidence," he said.
Ouellette has waived his right to preliminary hearings.
No dates have been set for the trials.

The Broome County Sheriff's office says 21-year-old Robert Wayne Simpson was being held at the jail on a misdemeanor charge and as a fugitive from justice in Pennsylvania. New York authorities say a Pennsylvania man agreed to pay an undercover officer $3,000 to kill a Pennsylvania family while he was in the Broome County Jail. Authorities are now charging Simpson, of Friendsville, Pa., with four counts of second-degree conspiracy. He was arraigned Friday before Broome County Judge Martin Smith and sent back to Broome County Jail without bail. The name of Simpson's lawyer was not immediately available from officials. Authorities did not identify the family but say it included two young children.

Law enforcement officers in Trinidad and Tobago believe that they have made a dent in a big drug ring involving Trinidad and Australia via Canada with the arrest of a 35-year-old car washer following the seizure of $4 million worth of high grade cocaine. The Trinidad Guardian newspaper reported that, acting on a tip-off, members of the narcotics unit, the Guard and Emergency Branch (GEB) and the K-9 unit intercepted a car in Tunapuna on Friday with a suitcase containing nine kilos of high grade cocaine. The cocaine, which is valued at $4 million, was being taken to Piarco by the car washer to be put on a flight bound for Canada. According to reports, the suspect was going to the airport to meet with his "contacts" at the airline counters where, after an exchange of cash and other promises, the suitcase would have been tagged and put on the flight with the address of someone living in Canada. According to the Guardian the suitcase would have been given priority treatment and placed in a special area in the cargo section of the aircraft. On arrival at Pearson International Airport in Canada, airline employees there would have met the plane and taken the suitcase to its destination. Police believe that the arrest of the suspect will dent the operations between Trinidad and Canada. Last Tuesday, Canadian authorities smashed a ring between Canada and Australia drug couriers operating out of Pearson International Airport. The arrested suspect will appear in Arima Magistrate's Court on Monday.

Ms Lapthorne's father, Dale, said the sacking of Ivan Kresic would never bring back his daughter, but the Croatian police might now start a serious investigation into her disappearance and death.Croatian police chief who bungled the investigation into the disappearance of Melbourne backpacker Britt Lapthorne has been sacked."I had absolutely no confidence in the head of police in Dubrovnik," Mr Lapthorne said. "He was in denial that there was any crime there at all."Britt Lapthorne, 21, disappeared in the coastal town on September 18. Her badly decomposed body was found in the sea on October 8.Mr Lapthorne was angry when he was not told by Dubrovnik police that a body matching his daughter's description was found in the sea. Local police insisted it could not be hers, even though an autopsy proved it was.
Acting Croatian police commissioner Vladimir Faber said the sacking was part of a nationwide shake-up of the country's police.He said Mr Kresic had lost his job because of an inability to tackle serious drug trafficking, corruption and the bungled Lapthorne investigation."We weren't satisfied with the speed of police reaction in the case of Britt Lapthorne," he told reporters in Dubrovnik."Although the fact remains that she would not have been saved even with a faster police reaction, somebody has to take responsibility for the fact that there was a five to six-day delay before a serious investigation and quality action was undertaken by leading police."Mr Lapthorne said the shake-up of the police force was a brave move.
"I think the man who was the head of the police in Dubrovnik had the cushiest job in Croatia as he was always in a state of denial that there was crime there," he said.
"He was never a professional policeman, he was just a political appointment."

Police are conducting a cold-case review of the murders, in which five young men were mutilated and killed during the seventies and eighties.It is understood the review has uncovered new evidence implicating a number of key suspects, but that police are still lacking crucial information that could lead to more arrests.
The major crimes investigation section recently re-interviewed the only man convicted of involvement in the crimes.In 1984 Bevan Spencer von Einem, a former accountant, was found guilty of murdering 15-year-old Richard Kelvin, the son of a television personality.But another four killings remain unsolved. Persistent rumours have linked them to an alleged paedophile ring, known as the "Family" and supposedly linked to the Adelaide establishment.The ring's existence has never been proved, but von Einem hinted during an interview in 1989 that he could give names but was afraid to.Police are preparing to offer a AUS$5m (£2m) reward in the hope of cracking a 20-year-old case: the so-called "Family Murders", in which five young men were mutilated and killed in a particularly grisly fashion.A former accountant, Bevan Spencer von Einem, was convicted in 1984 of murdering 15-year-old Richard Kelvin, the son of a television personality. But the other killings are unsolved, and persistent rumours have linked them to an alleged paedophile ring, the "Family", comprising pillars of the Adelaide establishment. While the ring's existence has not been proved, von Einem hinted during an interview in 1989 that he could give names but was afraid to.Richard Kelvin is believed to have been drugged and tortured for five weeks. Von Einem was also charged with murdering 17-year-old Alan Barnes and 18-year-old Mark Langley but was not convicted. Several victims died of blood loss after being anally mutilated. Mark Langley's body was missing sections of small intestine. The murders horrified the people of Adelaide, which has a long and unhappy history of serial killings and bizarre disappearances. Locals still shiver when they think about the three Beaumont children who vanished from a crowded city beach one morning in 1966 and have not been seen since. Two more girls, aged 11 and four, disappeared without trace from an Adelaide Oval football game in 1973.
During the late 1970s, seven teenage girls were abducted and murdered in Adelaide and its environs, and most recently, in 1999, eight dismembered bodies were found in barrels of acid in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, a small town outside Adelaide.
The Snowtown cases were solved when four men were convicted of a total of 11 murders, but the Family Murders remain an open wound. The state premier, Mike Rann, said the government would help police to boost the reward in the hope that it might lead to the "arrest, prosecution and successful conviction of those who were involved in some of the worst, vilest, most evil killings in the history of Australia".

Paul Hogan has scored a big victory in his fight with the taxman - the Australian Crime Commission is ready to stump up millions of dollars to pay his legal bills.In a humiliating backdown, the commission has returned tens of thousands of the actor's financial documents. They were seized from his accountants three years ago as part of an investigation into claims he hid millions of dollars in a complex web of overseas trusts. Hogan claimed legal privilege over the documents. Many were mistakenly deleted because of a technical glitch, lawyers for the commission admitted before Justice Arthur Emmett in the Federal Court yesterday. Hogan's lawyers argued that anyone who viewed any of 35 seized documents should be excluded from taking part in further investigations. Barrister Tim Game, SC, for the ACC, said Hogan's application to exclude those who viewed the documents from the investigation would cripple the authority's efforts. The ACC said outside court yesterday's move didn't affect its wider Operation Wickenby probe of tax fraud and evasion, and money laundering. The ATO would not comment. But a relaxed Hogan, 69, back on home turf for a new movie, was not so discreet, saying he hated bullies.
"I'm waiting for the feds to come and grab me," he joked. The ACC has agreed to pay some of Hogan's legal costs going back to 2006, estimated at up to $5 million. The ACC has spent at least $5 million investigating Hogan and it has not finished. Mr Game said it had done nothing improper or illegal and the investigation was continuing. Justice Emmett adjourned the case to December 8. Hogan, who begins filming Charlie & Boots in Warrnambool on Monday, also had a few words to say about Australian tourism promotions. The "Where The Bloody Hell Are You?" campaign had been embarrassing, and the new Australia-based series "doesn't set me on fire".
The star of the enormously successful 1980s "Throw Another Shrimp on the Barbie" campaign said promoting scenery rather than the Australian people was a mistake.
"They missed the whole point. Hospitality was what we were selling," he said.

Kyle Weese was arrested in February 2005 for a Sherbourne St. shooting that left one man wounded.When he was arrested at a rooming house three weeks later, Weese faced eight charges, including assault with a handgun and aggravated assault, for that shooting.Court documents show Weese pled guilty to one charge of discharging a firearm with intent to wound, maim or disfigure. In exchange, the Crown dropped the other seven charges in January 2006.He was sentenced to four years less time served. But because he had already served time in jail, he was to serve 25 months and one week. Weese was also given a lifetime firearms ban.

Brad Cooper is facing the possibility of the death penalty in North Carolina after being arrested and charged with the first-degree murder of his wife, former Edmontonian Nancy Cooper.Brad Cooper was indicted on the murder charge and arrested today, said Chief Pat Bazemore, police chief in Cary, N.C., where the Coopers lived.
"The defendant named above unlawfully, willfully and feloniously and of malice afterthought did kill and murder Nancy Cooper," the indictment reads.The charge carries a possibility of life in prison without parole, or the death penalty, Bazemore said.The state of North Carolina only executes prisoners by lethal injection. No one has been executed in the state since 2006, when four prisoners were put to death.Nancy Cooper's father, Garry Rentz, spoke during a press conference from his Edmonton home this evening.Rentz expressed his thanks to all the people who "helped us, led us and supported us during the most complex 108 days of our history."Nancy's memory has been kept alive by a family who loved her and incredible friends who were always there for her and our family."Rentz also thanked the detectives on his daughter's case for a "tireless and thorough" investigation.
Cooper, 34, was found dead in a ditch at a construction site near her home in Cary on July 14. Two days earlier, she had been reported missing after she vanished while out for a jog.An autopsy report concluded she had likely been strangled.The couple has two daughters. Temporary custody of them was awarded to Nancy Cooper's family last week.During the custody hearing, their lawyer argued that Brad Cooper is an unfit father who is mentally unstable and was emotionally abusive to his wife, and financially controlled her.As the custody hearing progressed, Nancy Cooper's family and friends stated they believed Brad was the only one with motivation to kill his wife.Brad Cooper had been fighting for custody of his daughters.Brad Cooper, also from Alberta, has stated he played no role in his wife's death. He was never named an official suspect during the three-month investigation.The Coopers moved to Cary, a suburb of Raleigh, eight years ago so Brad could start a new job.
Search warrants revealed that investigators found hair in the trunk and front bumper of the family's BMW. Brad Cooper told police he had recently cleaned a gasoline spill in the trunk, which officers could not detect.Officers also found that Brad Cooper had vigorously cleaned the family house the day his wife disappeared, which police were told was out of character for him.Brad Cooper also had "red marks or scratches" on his neck that he could not explain.According to a police affidavit, the couple had planned to separate and had an argument a week before Nancy Cooper's disappearance.

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) havearrested and charged Kerry Dallas of Jamaica who is in Canada illegally andresiding in Toronto, for committing drug offences and providing falseinformation to police.On October 23, 2008 the OPP Drug Enforcement Section (DES), along withmembers of the Nottawasaga OPP Detachment stopped a vehicle in Alliston,Ontario. DALLAS, who was the driver of the vehicle failed to properly identifyhimself and as a result, was arrested for obstructing police. Subsequent to
his arrest, DALLAS was found to be in possession of numerous pieces of false
identification. During the search of his vehicle, OPP officers also found
approximately 14 grams of what is believed to be "crack" cocaine hidden in
DALLAS' vehicle.The Investigation revealed that DALLAS was in Canada illegally, havingbeen initially deported back to Jamaica on April 5, 2007. Police do not know
when DALLAS illegally returned to Canada.
On October 24, 2008, OPP officers, with the assistance of the Toronto
Police Service, executed a search warrant on DALLAS' residence located in
Toronto and seized a number of falsified identification documents.
Kerry DALLAS, 38 years old of Jamaica, resident of Toronto, has been
charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance for the Purpose of
Trafficking, Obstruct Police and Personation. He has been remanded into
custody pending his next court appearance at the Ontario Court of Justice in
Barrie.The Canada Border Services Agency has been contacted in relation to
DALLAS being in Canada illegally.The investigation is continuing and other charges are pending.

Spain’s remains a target for Al-Qaeda four years after the Madrid bombings that killed 191 people, the intelligence service said in a report quoted by a Spanish newspaper Monday.“The counter-terrorist activities by the state security forces since the March 11, 2004 attacks shows that Spain remains a target of the Al-Qaeda network and its allies as well as a source of human resources,” the intelligence service said in a report, a copy of which was seen by the El Pais daily.“Al-Qaeda has not lost sight of the global jihad and, in exchanges with the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), it has told them to quickly attack local targets and reminds them that their real goal is to cross into Al Andalus,” it said.
Al Andalus is the Arabic name for the parts of the Iberian peninsula that were under Muslim, or Moorish, control for almost 800 years until the late 15th century.The GSPC last year changed its name to Al-Qaeda’s Branch in the Islamic Maghreb.In September 2007, Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri called for Al Andalus to be restored to the Islamic world, saying the first step needs to be the “cleansing’ of Spaniards and French from the Maghreb.The Al-Qaeda inspired bombings on four packed commuter trains on March 11, 2004 killed 191 people and wounded hundreds of others.
Spanish courts last year ordered 21 people jailed for life over the attacks. Four have since been acquitted after appeals.Spanish police last week arrested 12 north Africans suspected of links to the bombings."

Methamphetamine addict tortured and strangled his girlfriend three years ago was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. A judge upheld a jury's sentencing recommendation for Jack Henry Lewis, Jr. "This was not only a senseless killing, it was a brutal and horrible act," Superior Court Judge John Einhorn told Lewis. "If there is any positive that can come of this, it's that for the rest of your life in prison, you can be the spokesperson for what happens when you take meth," the judge said. Prosecutors said Lewis, 39, was a methamphetamine addict who used his hands, feet and a flashlight to beat Jan Hasegawa, 48, then strangled her because she refused to perform a sex act. Her nude body, covered with more than 150 bruises, was found in their Serra Mesa apartment on Sept. 8, 2005. Lewis called 911 after her death but left the apartment before police arrived. He later turned himself in. Authorities said that Lewis and Hasegawa, who had a 12-year relationship, both used methamphetamine. A former co-worker tearfully said Hasegawa would show up with hair missing and bruises all over her body. "She thought if she loved him enough, that he would stop. Well, she loved him until he killed her," Tina Rasmussen said. Lewis was convicted in August of torture and first-degree murder with a special circumstance that the killing occurred during torture. Jurors recommended life in prison instead of the death penalty

Joseph Morgan, age 21, was found guilty by a Lowell Superior Court Jury today on counts of first degree murder, armed assault with intent to rob, armed assault in a dwelling, carrying a firearm without a license, and possessing ammunition without a FID card.Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fishman set a sentencing date of Wednesday, October 29, at 2 p.m., in Lowell Superior Court. A conviction of first degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life without parole.“We are thankful to the jury for their careful consideration of the facts before them and for holding this defendant responsible for the senseless murder of Alberto Cintron,” District Attorney Leone said. “We continue to offer our thoughts and sympathies to Alberto’s family and friends for their loss. This was a complex investigation, and today’s conviction was the result of the excellent work done by Lowell Police, Massachusetts State Police, and our trial team led by Assistant District Attorney Steve Loughlin.”According to authorities, at approximately 2:44 a.m. on Tuesday, July 4, 2006, Lowell Police responded to 115 Shaw Street, Apt. 4, in Lowell, after several 911 calls reporting shots fired. Upon arrival at the scene, police found Cintron on the floor of his apartment evidencing gunshot wounds. He was transported to Lowell General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:43 a.m. Lowell Police contacted State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, and together they commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death. After a day-long investigation, Lowell Police and State Police placed Morgan under arrest at approximately 1:20 a.m., without incident, in Lowell. Authorities believe that Morgan entered Cintron’s apartment on July 4 intending to rob him, and that Cintron was shot several times in the process. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (ME) completed an autopsy on Cintron and found the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, and ruled the death a homicide.Morgan was arraigned on July 5, 2006 in Lowell District Court. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bailJury selection began on October 14 and opening statements began October 16 in Lowell Superior Court before Judge Kenneth Fishman.The prosecutor assigned to the case was Assistant District Attorney Stephen Loughlin with assistance from Assistant District Attorney Steve Hoctor. The victim witness advocate was Dora Quiroz.

Joseph Morgan, age 21, was found guilty by a Lowell Superior Court Jury today on counts of first degree murder, armed assault with intent to rob, armed assault in a dwelling, carrying a firearm without a license, and possessing ammunition without a FID card.Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fishman set a sentencing date of Wednesday, October 29, at 2 p.m., in Lowell Superior Court. A conviction of first degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life without parole.“We are thankful to the jury for their careful consideration of the facts before them and for holding this defendant responsible for the senseless murder of Alberto Cintron,” District Attorney Leone said. “We continue to offer our thoughts and sympathies to Alberto’s family and friends for their loss. This was a complex investigation, and today’s conviction was the result of the excellent work done by Lowell Police, Massachusetts State Police, and our trial team led by Assistant District Attorney Steve Loughlin.”According to authorities, at approximately 2:44 a.m. on Tuesday, July 4, 2006, Lowell Police responded to 115 Shaw Street, Apt. 4, in Lowell, after several 911 calls reporting shots fired. Upon arrival at the scene, police found Cintron on the floor of his apartment evidencing gunshot wounds. He was transported to Lowell General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:43 a.m. Lowell Police contacted State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, and together they commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death. After a day-long investigation, Lowell Police and State Police placed Morgan under arrest at approximately 1:20 a.m., without incident, in Lowell. Authorities believe that Morgan entered Cintron’s apartment on July 4 intending to rob him, and that Cintron was shot several times in the process. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (ME) completed an autopsy on Cintron and found the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, and ruled the death a homicide.Morgan was arraigned on July 5, 2006 in Lowell District Court. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bailJury selection began on October 14 and opening statements began October 16 in Lowell Superior Court before Judge Kenneth Fishman.The prosecutor assigned to the case was Assistant District Attorney Stephen Loughlin with assistance from Assistant District Attorney Steve Hoctor. The victim witness advocate was Dora Quiroz.

Awor Ocer Lucy, a 42-year-old Ugandan, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for smuggling more than 2 kg of heroin into China.The woman was seized by customs officials at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport after drugs were found in her luggage on April 11.Bernard Sogbossi from the Republic of Benin and Sunday Ogbonna Okah from Nigeria each received life sentences for attempting to smuggle 200 g and 900 g of heroin respectively through the same airport in April.Filipino Balachawi Vilma Tuguinay was sentenced to 15 years in jail for smuggling 128 g of heroin into Guangzhou.The 31-year-old entered China through Shenzhen airport. She was arrested at a Guangzhou hospital after reporting with a stomachache on Feb 28 two weeks after swallowing the plastic-wrapped heroin when she left for China.
All four foreigners were convicted at the Guangzhou intermediate people’s court yesterday.“The verdicts sound alarm bells for foreign smugglers,” Li Zhongyuan, a press official at the court, said.“Any smuggling within the city will be dealt via judicial punishment.”The number of smuggling cases involving foreigners in this southern city has risen since 2006, Li said.Official statistics show Guangzhou customs has seized about 250 kg of drugs from foreigners in 190 investigations since a crackdown began in August 2006.More than 40,000 non-Chinese nationals are currently registered as residents in Guangdong, most of whom live and do business in this capital city of Guangdong, the provincial police department said.“Guangzhou has become one of the hot destinations for foreign smugglers. In particular, smuggling by foreigners via the airport has become worse since last year,” Xu Yue, a spokeswoman with Guangzhou customs, said.“The cases involved foreigners smuggling ice, heroin and cocaine, either in their luggage or in their bodies, entering or leaving from the airport,” she said.Most foreign smugglers hailed from the Middle East, and Southeast and West Asia, she said.“We will introduce more hi-tech facilities and station more customs police at the airport’s exit and entry points to detect smuggling more efficiently,” Xu said.