newsmakers

newsmakers

Coroner: Verne Troyer death suicide by alcohol intoxication

LOS ANGELES

Verne Troyer, best known for his role as Mike Myers’ comical sidekick “Mini-Me” in the “Austin Powers” movie franchise, died last April of suicide by alcohol intoxication, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office reported Wednesday.

Troyer had a potentially fatal level of alcohol in his system and was saying repeatedly that he wanted to die when he was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital on April 3, according to the coroner’s report.

He died there on April 21 of multiple organ failure.

The report concluded that Troyer’s death was caused by “sequelae of alcohol intoxication.”

Sequelae is a term defining an action or condition leading to another ailment or, in this case, death.

“Based on the history and circumstances as currently known, the manner of death is suicide,” Deputy Medical Examiner Martina Kennedy wrote in the report.

Former reality TV star gets 16 years after fatal DUI crash

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.

A former reality TV star will serve 16 years in prison for killing a U.S. Coast Guard technician in a drunken wrong-way collision on a Virginia highway.

News outlets reported that Melissa Hancock was sentenced Wednesday after earlier pleading guilty to manslaughter, driving the wrong way and failing to obey a highway sign.

Hancock appeared on Lifetime’s “Little Women: Atlanta,” a reality show that focuses on women of short stature.

A court summons described Hancock as 4 feet tall and weighing 77 pounds .

Daniel Dill was a Logan Township, N.J., native who was stationed in Portsmouth, Va., as an information systems technician.

Virginia State Police said Hancock struck Dill head-on about 2 a.m. Nov. 4.

He died of his injuries the next day.

‘Real Housewives’ husband Joe Giudice to be deported

YORK, Pa.

The husband of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Teresa Giudice will be deported back to Italy once he’s released from prison next year, according to a judge’s ruling Wednesday.

Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice appeared before an immigration court in York, Pa., via teleconference.

He has 30 days to appeal the decision, said Kathryn Mattingly, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Immigration Review.

Giudice is an Italian citizen who came to the U.S. as an infant and wasn’t aware he wasn’t an American citizen.

He’s currently serving a more than 3-year sentence for fraud and failing to pay taxes. Prison records indicate he is set to be released in March.

The couple pleaded guilty in 2014 to bankruptcy fraud and submitting false loan applications to get $5 million in mortgages and construction loans.

Joe Giudice also pleaded guilty to not paying about $200,000 in income taxes.

Teresa Giudice served nearly a year in prison and was freed in December 2015.

In January, during the season eight reunion of “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” Teresa Giudice implied she would be open to moving to Italy with him.

Associated Press