88-year-old man dies in jump from biplane

By: North County Times - | Tuesday, March 30, 2004 10:09 AM PST ∞

EL CAJON - An 88-year-old man on a flight chartered by his son as a birthday present jumped to his death from a biplane despite efforts by the pilot to restrain him, authorities said.

The man, identified by the county Medical Examiner's office today as Joseph Harold Frost of Carlsbad, climbed out of the dual-wing plane as it flew near Gillespie Field airport in El Cajon about 4:45 p.m. yesterday, according to investigators.

Frost's body was severed as he struck a power line and landed on the enclosed patio of an apartment complex in the 300 block of East Bradley Avenue, San Diego sheriff's spokesman Chris Saunders said.

The man's plunge through the utility lines caused power outages to about 4,000 customers in the neighborhood, authorities said.

Several witnesses watched the man fall to his death, but no one on the ground was injured by Frost, Saunders said.

Frost, who celebrated his 88th birthday two days ago, was recently diagnosed with a tumor that was causing him to go blind, authorities said. His son chartered the flight as a birthday gift, Saunders said.

After the 30-minute flight over East County, the Steerman PT 17 plane headed back to Gillespie Field, piloted by Willis Allen, owner of Allen Airways Flying Museum, Saunders said. That was when Frost stood up in the front seat of the open plane and tried to jump, he said.

Allen told authorities that he argued and struggled with Frost to pull him back inside the plane, and even pitched the plane's nose up to force him to sit down, Saunders said.

But Frost was determined and managed to jump when the plane was about a half-mile from the airport and about 300 to 400 feet above the ground, Saunders said. He was killed on impact, Saunders said.

Allen landed the plane safely and reported the incident to sheriff's officials based at the airport, Saunders said.

Actor Jason Patric arrested on public intoxication charge in Texas

AUSTIN (AP) -- Actor Jason Patric was arrested on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest Monday.

According to police, Patric, 37, was with a group of people standing in a downtown street about 3 a.m. when they were asked by officers to move.

Patric moved slowly toward the sidewalk, but then took an aggressive stance, police said. When they tried to arrest him, Patric resisted and shoved an officer, according to police.

According to the arrest warrant, Patric insisted he was not drunk and that officers should test him. Police spokesman Kevin Buchman said there is no test administered for public intoxication and officers only need to have suspicion.

Patric was booked into the Travis County Jail and released five hours later, jail officials said.

A statement released by Patric's publicist, Michelle Bega, said Patric "believes he has done nothing wrong. He hopes for a rapid resolution to clear his name."

Patric's latest film, "The Alamo," is set for release April 9. He stars as Texas hero James Bowie, alongside Billy Bob Thornton as Davy Crockett and Dennis Quaid as Sam Houston.

Patric's other films include "The Lost Boys," "Sleepers" and "Speed 2: Cruise Control."

Canadian judge orders FBI-wanted fugitive detained after theft arrest

VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) -- A Canadian judge ordered a radical environmentalist wanted by the FBI detained Monday, after the American was caught allegedly trying to steal bolt cutters from a tire store.

U.S. officials are working with the Canadian government to extradite Michael Scarpitti, a suspected member of the Earth Liberation Front group, a Canadian government spokesman said.

The FBI, which considers ELF a terrorist organization, has offered a $25,000 reward for his capture.

The Earth Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for dozens of crimes over the past several years. Scarpitti, also known as Tre Arrow, is among four activists charged with setting logging trucks on fire on June 1, 2001, to protest logging on the slopes of Mount Hood in Oregon.

Scarpitti was arrested in Victoria, in western Canada, on March 13 and charged with theft, assault and obstruction. He told police his name was Joshua Murray, but police learned his real identity after running his fingerprints through a criminal database.

A British Columbia judge ruled Monday that Scarpitti will be arraigned on April 20.

U.S. Department of Justice officials could not immediately be reached for comment. But Robert Jordan, the FBI's special agent in charge in Portland, Ore., said earlier this month the agency was working to bring him back to Oregon.

Outside court, a group of people read a statement on Scarpitti's behalf, saying he was on a hunger strike to protest his incarceration and the lack of justice in the U.S. judicial system.

Scarpitti's lawyer, Tim Russell, said he did not know how long the hunger strike would last.

Scarpitti also is accused of participating in an April 15, 2001, arson attack that damaged three cement trucks at a sand-and-gravel company in Portland.

Scarpitti first gained notoriety in July 2000 when he scaled a U.S. Forest Service building in downtown Portland and lived on a ledge for 11 days to protest timber policies.

Trial begins for mother who bashed two of her sons to death with a stone

TYLER, Texas (AP) -- A mother who bashed her sons' heads with heavy rocks, killing two of the boys, was so delusional she thought the Lord told her to do it, her attorney said Monday in opening statements at her murder trial.

"Does she follow what she believes to be God's will or does she turn her back on her God?" defense attorney F.R. "Buck" Files Jr. asked the jury of eight men and four women.

Deanna Laney, a 39-year-old stay-at-home mother, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to charges of murdering 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke and causing serious injury to Aaron, 14 months old at the time. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

The deeply religious East Texas woman who home-schooled her children in the tiny town of New Chapel Hill, 100 miles southeast of Dallas, wept uncontrollably and shook her head, at times burying her face in a tissue, as she listened to testimony and prosecutors showed gruesome photographs of her slain children.

Her husband, who has supported her, sat a few rows behind with friends and family.

Prosecutors contend Laney knew right from wrong when she killed her children last Mother's Day weekend, despite opinions from two psychiatric experts for the defense, two for the prosecution and one for the judge -- all of whom said Laney was legally insane.

"The issue of sanity is tried in the court, not the hospitals," District Attorney Matt Bingham told the jury.

Prosecutors played a tape of a 911 call in which Laney, in her high, dainty voice, calmly told a dispatcher after midnight on May 10: "I just killed my boys." She also described the color of her house and directed authorities to her home.

"I just did what I had to do," she told the dispatcher.

Later in the tape, she appeared to doubt whether she should have beaten the baby, saying, "I don't think I did right by Aaron." She later said, "I don't think I was supposed to kill him."

In his opening statement, the district attorney told the jury: "The evidence will show you that the last thing Josh and Luke Laney ever saw was their mom with a rock over their head and the last thing they ever felt was that rock crashing over their head."

Bingham said Laney attacked the baby first, hammering his head with a 4.5-pound rock she had hidden under his crib. When he began crying, Laney's husband, Keith, woke up and found his wife standing over the baby.

"Everything's OK," she told him.

He assumed his wife was changing a diaper and went back to bed. Laney then struck the baby again, and after hearing a gurgling from the blood in Aaron's throat, she covered him with a pillow and left the room, Bingham said.

"Aaron Laney will never be the same," said Bingham, adding that the boy's vision has been impaired and he will never live independently.

With Aaron's blood on her pajamas, Laney then woke up Luke, led him outside the family's rural brick home and asked him to put his head on a large rock, the prosecutor said.

"He does what his Mommy tells him," Bingham said.

Laney smashed the 6-year-old's skull with a large landscaping rock. Then she went to get her oldest child, Joshua.

He, too, obeyed his mother and put his head against a large rock in the yard. His mother bashed his skull with a 16-pound rock.

The boys were found in their underwear. Their bodies had been dragged to a dark corner of the front yard.

Officers who testified about the crime scene said the boys' father was hysterical when he awoke to find his sons slain, yelling over and over at his wife, "What did you do?"

Odds and Ends

LA TRINIDAD, Philippines (AP) -- This town had its cake and ate it, too.

La Trinidad, which calls itself the Philippines' strawberry capital, was trying to bake itself into the Guinness Book of Records with what it touted was the world's biggest strawberry buttercake.

La Trinidad has been baking similar giant cakes over the last three years, but Mayor Nestor Fongwan said it outdid itself this time with a 24,572 pound behemoth.

At 18 cents a slice, it fed some 55,000 people. The cake measured 12.31 feet long, 8.68 feet wide and 8.42 feet high.

Food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp. supplied 2,546 pounds of all-purpose flour, 44 pounds of baking powder, 1,670 bars of butter, 9,000 eggs, 87 gallons of fresh milk and 66 gallons of whipped cream.

Also going into the project were 6,614 pounds of strawberries, 1,488 pounds of strawberry jam and 1,550 bottles of strawberry extract, Fongwan said.

Organizers said they are seeking a record under a new category -- the world's biggest strawberry buttercake. Plant City, Fla., holds the Guinness record for biggest strawberry shortcake.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) -- This rescue was a bit tougher for firefighters than getting a kitty out of a tree.

Evansville firefighters used an improvised harness and heavy equipment to rescue a horse that had become trapped in a soil washout.

The horse fell into the 6-foot-deep sinkhole Wednesday afternoon while a group of riders were returning to a stable, said District Fire Chief Dan Grimm. The rider fell clear and was not injured, but the horse became trapped.

Animal control officers called the fire department when they were unable to rescue the horse, Grimm said.

One of the firefighters was an experienced horseman and quickly sized up the situation, Grimm said. The firefighters rigged a harness from fire hose and rope and attached it to a front-end loader from a nearby orchard to lift the horse free.

The animal was not injured, Grimm said.

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) -- A foundation to support Irvine's public schools is raffling off a $500,000 town house -- and the $200 tickets are selling fast.

The Irvine Public Schools Foundation expects to net more than $1 million from the June 12 drawing, said Tim Shaw, the group's chief executive officer. Raffle proceeds will go to the local schools; tickets have been on sale for about a week.

The February median price of an Orange County home was $475,000, a nearly 24 percent increase over a year ago and the biggest jump in 15 years.

Eileen Ganong, of San Clemente, bought a ticket for herself and split another with her 21-year-old daughter, a college senior.

"I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity for her to get a foot in the door in the Orange County real estate market," Ganong said. "I am afraid my daughter will never be able to own a home without a lot of struggle and sacrifices."

Original wire story (a0474):

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) -- Brett Schott has discovered that being honored as a hero for helping rescue a police officer can have a down side.

Publicity over the medal and $3,500 Schott received from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission of Pittsburgh has blown his cover as a security guard at least once.

Attention for the award has been "awkward and nice at the same time," said Schott, 29, who catches shoplifters for Wal-Mart with his wife.

Last week, after appearing on a talk show hosted by John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted," Schott said, a shopper recognized him and slapped him on the back as he was trying to shadow a potential shoplifter.

Schott has been honored by California state legislators, the town of Ukiah, Calif., veterans groups and others for his actions more than a year ago at a Wal-Mart in the northern California town.

The episode began when the Schotts caught a woman trying to return a stolen duffel bag for $29.96 in cash. After a police officer came to take the woman into custody, a man with her shot the officer five times.

Schott, 5-foot-3 and 150 pounds, jumped the gunman and wrestled the gun away, but the other man stabbed him and went for the rifle and shotgun in the officer's patrol car. A police cadet freed the wounded officer's handgun from its holster and the officer used his left hand to shoot the assailant dead.

International con man gets five years in prison

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An international con man who swindled the rich out of at least $1.5 million by claiming to be a movie producer, a Rockefeller heir and other celebrities, was sentenced Monday to five years in prison.

Christopher Rocancourt, 36, was sentenced in Superior Court for conspiracy to use a false or fraudulent passport. He will serve the time concurrently with a five-year federal prison term handed down last year in a New York fraud case and his sentence from a New York state court for grand larceny.

Rocancourt was expected to do the time in a federal prison in Pennsylvania and then is expected to be deported to his native France.

Rocancourt got "a great deal" that will allow resolution of all the cases against him for "basically one sentence," defense attorney Victor Sherman said after the hearing.

Rocancourt also was ordered to pay $1,000 restitution, although his lawyer has said he is broke.

The California case against Rocancourt dates to 1997, when he, two U.S. Passport Agency supervisors and the adopted niece of the president of Gabon were charged with conspiring to make and distribute false passports.

The federal employees pleaded guilty and were given probation. The niece, Lea Amina Dabany, is a fugitive.

Rocancourt also fled to New York, where authorities said he bilked the wealthy by pretending to be a French relative of the Rockefeller family.

"It's kind of nice to come back here and put a finality to it," Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Hector Guzman said outside court. "Hopefully, Mr. Rocancourt learns some sort of lesson out of it."

His lawyer said Rocancourt plans to go into the movie business when he is released from prison.

"He'll fit in right away," Sherman said.

Rocancourt, who had an extensive criminal history in France, was dubbed the counterfeit Rockefeller by the U.S. media, where he was photographed with the likes of Mickey Rourke and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

He used aliases such as Christopher Rockefeller, William Van Hoven and Fabien Ortuno while hobnobbing in Hollywood and the Hamptons. He variously introduced himself as an international businessman, a movie producer and the son of Sophia Loren.

His friends gave him money and paid for his stays in luxury hotels.

During the late 1990s, Rocancourt used the Rockefeller name to bilk investors, promising them fantastic returns while demanding cash up front for expenses, New York court papers said. In one case, he collected a $100,000 advance fee from a woman in a meeting at The Waldorf-Astoria hotel to arrange a $4.2 million loan, then stalled her for months before disappearing with her money.

Rocancourt said he preyed on his victims' gullibility.

"I became the reflection of their own vanities," he wrote in a recent autobiography.

Rocancourt used his ill-gotten gains on fancy cars, helicopter rides and expensive hotel rooms.

He fled to Canada, where he was posing as a race car driver when he was arrested in 2001. He pleaded guilty to cheating a businessman there and spent a year in jail before he was extradited to the United States last year.