Ex-cop found guilty of rape, other counts

Ex-cop found guilty of rape, other counts

OKLAHOMA CITY

A former Oklahoma City police officer was convicted Thursday of 18 of the 36 counts he faced, including four counts of first-degree rape, related to accusations that he victimized 13 women on his police beat in a minority, low-income neighborhood.

Daniel Holtzclaw, 29, sobbed as the verdict was read aloud. He could spend the rest of his life in prison based on the jury’s recommendations, which include a 30-year sentence on each of the first-degree rape counts. Among the other charges he was convicted of were forcible oral sodomy, sexual battery and second-degree rape.

Conn. to ban gun sales to those on federal no-fly list

HARTFORD, Conn.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed Thursday to use an executive order to ban gun sales to those on federal no-fly watch lists.

The Democratic governor said state officials are working with the federal government to get access to the lists.

“If you cannot fly due to being on a government watch list, you should not be able to purchase a firearm while on that watch list as well,” Malloy told reporters at the Capitol. “This is basic common sense. The American people get it.”

Ex-Fogle colleague gets 27 years in prison for child porn

INDIANAPOLIS

The former director of a foundation started by ex-Subway pitchman Jared Fogle begged a judge not to send him to “rot in the landfill of lost souls” before she sentenced him Thursday to 27 years in a federal prison for producing child pornography.

Russell Taylor, whose production of child pornography of 12 children played a key role in Fogle’s criminal case, choked back tears as he asked U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt for a sentence short enough for him to someday reunite with his family.

“Please do not allow me to rot in the landfill of lost souls,” Taylor told Judge Pratt, his voice cracking after he apologized to his victims and said he was deeply remorseful.

Prosecutors sought a 35-year sentence, while attorneys for the 44-year-old Indianapolis man requested a sentence ranging from 15 years to nearly 23 years.

Koreas meeting

SEOUL, South Korea

North and South Korea had high-level talks today at a North Korean border town, a small step meant to improve ties battered by a military standoff in August and decades of acrimony and bloodshed.

No major breakthrough was expected at the meeting of vice-ministerial officials in Kaesong, but analysts see even these relatively low-level talks as meaningful because they seek to carry out previously agreed reconciliation efforts.

Armed Ark. man arrested on campus

JONESBORO, Ark.

An armed man who had posted on Facebook that he was homicidal drove onto the Arkansas State University campus Thursday, sparking a lockdown before police took him into custody without any shots fired, university and police officials said.

Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott said Brad Kenneth Bartelt, 47, of Jonesboro, had a 12-gauge shotgun and containers of gasoline and propane with him when he drove his truck onto a plaza east of the student union. University spokesman Bill Smith said the man, once a student at a remote campus, was taken into custody about an hour after the incident began.

Associated Press