Jury convicts mechanic for killing Carlie Brucia, 11
Jury convicts mechanicfor killing Carlie Brucia, 11
SARASOTA, Fla.-- Susan, Schorpen, left, mother of Carlie Brucia, weeps with Judy Cornett as the guilty verdict is read for Joseph Smith. The mechanic with a long criminal record was convicted Thursday of kidnapping, raping and strangling 11-year-old Carlie, whose abduction was captured by a car-wash security camera. Smith, 39, could get the death penalty. The jury took about five hours to find him guilty in the slaying of Carlie, whose half-naked body was found outside a church more than four days after the sixth-grader disappeared in February 2004 while walking home from a friend's house. Smith was arrested after being identified as the burly, tattooed man seen taking the girl away by the arm in a fuzzy video that was broadcast nationwide during the search for the killer. The girl's father, Joe Brucia, nodded when each of the three convictions was announced. As he left court, he said only that he was happy with the verdict. Smith, who did not take the stand, showed no emotion when the verdict was read. The jury will return for the sentencing phase Nov. 28.
Sheehan, other activistsare guilty in D.C. protest
WASHINGTON -- Iraq War protester Cindy Sheehan and 26 other peace activists were found guilty Thursday of protesting without a permit near the White House. They were each ordered to pay $75 in fines and court costs, but Sheehan's lawyer said he plans to appeal the verdict. "We weren't demonstrating," Sheehan told reporters after the trial. All the defendants contended they were trying to deliver petitions to the White House calling for an end to the war in Iraq on Sept. 26, but found no one willing to accept them. Sheehan, 48, of Berkeley, Calif., has tried repeatedly to meet with President Bush since her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year.
Bush and Putin agreeon terror and North Korea
BUSAN, South Korea -- Although their political relationship is strained, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin are trying to speak with one voice about the war on terror and the campaign to stop North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The two leaders were meeting today, apparently still at odds over how to address Iran's nuclear programs and with long-running differences over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and U.S. concern that Russia is retreating from democracy. Far from home, Bush was on the defensive about Democrats' criticism that he had misled the nation about the need to go to war in Iraq.
Murderer who escapedfrom Iowa prison is caught
FORT MADISON, Iowa -- A convicted murderer who escaped from an Iowa prison this week by using a homemade grappling hook to scale a 30-foot limestone wall was captured Thursday in Illinois. A second inmate remained at large. Martin Moon, 34, was caught after he was found sleeping in a stolen car in the town of Chester, near an Illinois prison. Moon and Robert Joseph Legendre, 27, broke out of the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison on Monday night. Authorities said the two used the homemade hook along with a rope fashioned from upholstery materials taken from the prison furniture shop. They went over an unguarded section of wall and somehow got around a wire that is supposed to activate an alarm when touched. A nationwide search was under way for Legendre, who was in prison for attempted murder.
Boy, 15, says he's in lovewith wife, 37, his pal's mom
GAINESVILLE, Ga. -- A 15-year-old boy who wed the 37-year-old mother of one of his friends said the relationship was consensual and he's in love with her." She didn't seduce me or anything like that," the boy told WGCL-TV in Atlanta on Thursday from a juvenile detention center where he is being held on an unrelated charge. "She's done a lot for me, you know. She's been good to me." The boy added he had no regrets about his relationship with Lisa Lynnette Clark, who has said she is pregnant with his child. Authorities have charged Clark with child molestation. She was arrested the day after she married the boy in the driveway of a retired probate judge's home Nov. 8. The two were wed under a Georgia law that allows a pregnant couple to marry without consent and regardless of age.
Associated Press