Suspect in slaying of Indianapolis family surrenders

By: Associated Press | Saturday, June 3, 2006 11:42 PM PDT ∞

INDIANAPOLIS -- A man suspected of gunning down seven family members he believed kept large amounts of money in their home surrendered to police on Saturday, authorities said.

A few members of Desmond Turner's family accompanied him as he met authorities at a downtown fast-food restaurant around 7 p.m.

"He couldn't look at anybody," Deputy Chief Tim Foley said. "He had his head down. He was sullen."

The bodies of three boys, ages 5 to 11, and four adult relatives were found dead in a house Thursday in the worst mass murder in Indianapolis in at least 25 years.

Turner, 28, grew up in the area and had returned last fall after being released from prison following a 3.5-year term for drug and weapons charges.

Foley said investigators put pressure on people who knew Turner to ensure that they wouldn't take him in.

"He didn't turn himself in out of remorse. He turned himself in because he had no place to go," Foley said.

More than 100 police officers had searched for Turner, including unsuccessful raids at two houses, since shortly after the slayings. He now faces seven counts of murder.

On Friday, police arrested another suspect, 30-year-old James Stewart, after a traffic stop. He was being held Saturday on a preliminary charge of murder, police said.

"Indianapolis can sleep a lot easier tonight," Deputy Police Chief Clifford Myers said.

Foley said police believe the suspects targeted the home for robbery after hearing exaggerated accounts of money and other valuables inside. Those accounts were "fiction," Foley said.

Nearly 30 shell casings from an assault rifle were found at the home.

Foley said that although the decision of whether to pursue capital murder charges belongs to prosecutors, "If I was a betting man, I'd say there's a high likelihood this is going to be a death penalty case."

The victims were identified as Emma Valdez, 46; her husband, Alberto Covarrubias, 56; their sons Alberto Covarrubias, 11, and David Covarrubias, 8 or 9; Valdez's daughter, Flora Albarran, 22; Albarran's 5-year-old son, Luis; and Albarran's brother Magno Albarran, 29.

Maria Flores, whose sister was killed, stood quietly as police briefed the media about Turner's surrender.

"We are very relieved and thankful that he made the right decision," she said. "I just hope God forgives him for what he did."

Neighbors, friends and others left flowers, ribbons, candles, dozens of stuffed animals and an angel statue along a sidewalk in front of the family's house in a working-class neighborhood. Cars drove by slowly while people knelt to pray. A memorial service was to be held in front of the family's home Sunday evening.

"God shall bring justice to them, celebrate the way they lived, not the way they left us," read one note left atop seven red roses at the family's modest tan house. "A good family is gone, but not forgotten. Shall they all rest in peace."

Adults and children, many in tears, streamed through nearby Thomas D. Gregg Elementary, where David and Alberto had attended classes, to speak with grief counselors Saturday.

"The boys were very respectful of the school, good students and well-behaved," Principal Les Durbin told The Indianapolis Star. "They were very well-respected by their classmates and their parents were very involved in their educations."

2 inmates charged in unrelated murder-for-hire plots


TAVARES, Fla. (AP) -- Two Florida jail inmates each face charges of conspiring to kill children who are scheduled to testify against them in separate abuse cases.

One inmate, Daniel King, 25, offered someone $5,000 to kidnap and kill a 5-year-old girl who accused him of forcing her to engage in a sex act, according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

The other inmate, Jeffrey Roden, 36, wrote a letter to his father asking for $1,000 so he could hire a hit man to kill his girlfriend and her 4-year-old son, deputies said. The boy had accused Roden of beating him with a belt.

Authorities said the tips came from the sheriff's jail-intelligence unit.

"Amazingly enough, a lot of people who go to jail are mad, and they don't mind telling us crimes other people are planning," said deputy Chris Daniels, who created the unit.

King was charged Thursday with solicitation to commit murder and solicitation to commit kidnapping. Roden was charged Thursday with two counts of solicitation to commit murder.

A message left for King's public defender was not immediately returned Saturday. Jail officials did not have the name of Roden's attorney.

Arizona fire evacuees given the go-ahead to return home


SEDONA, Ariz. (AP) -- Crews fighting an 836-acre wildfire that destroyed five buildings south of this scenic northern Arizona community gave evacuees the go-ahead to return home Saturday.

Thirty homes out of about 200 in the Pine Valley subdivision were evacuated Thursday when the fire broke out.

The blaze destroyed one home and four buildings. Another home was damaged.

Investigators said it appeared the fire was started by sparks from the grinder of a company that was working on a fence post.

Joe Luttman, a spokesman for crews fighting the fire, said the blaze wasn't expected to advance significantly Saturday, but firefighters were watching out for potential problems caused by wind-blown embers.

Authorities break up multimillion-dollar jewelry-theft ring in California


RIVERSIDE (AP) -- The Riverside County sheriff's department says it has cracked a jewelry-theft ring, arresting two people and recovering more than $4 million in merchandise stolen from ritzy boutiques in Southern California.

The operation ranged from Beverly Hills to Palm Desert. In one theft on May 19 in a Palm Desert jewelry store, a pair of robbers forced two female employees to strip naked, bound them with duct tape and threatened them with sexual assault, officials said.

"We're not a sleepy little place anymore," Sheriff Bob Doyle said Friday.

Sheriff's investigators executed nine search warrants in the Los Angeles area to bust up the network and recover cash and goods, including jewelry and stacks of $100 bills.

Two men arrested May 20 were being held in lieu of $1 million bail on charges of armed robbery and assault, and Doyle said investigators are seeking other members of the ring.

Two 16-year-olds arrested for allegedly killing retarded man


SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Two 16-year-old boys have been arrested for allegedly stomping a 48-year-old retarded man to death after he tried to stop them from stealing a DVD player, police said.

Kent Guetling was killed April 7 as he tried to help a friend recover the player.

Police said Guetling was with some friends who were watching a movie on the player at a Sacramento park when the two teens grabbed the player and ran.

Guetling caught up with the teens on a bicycle and was hit in the face, knocked down and stomped when he asked for the player back, according to police.

"He was just trying to help a buddy and it backfired on him," Guetling's sister, Dawn Shanoff, said after police arrested the teens late Thursday. "Kent wouldn't hurt a flea. He was just helping a buddy out, just like he always did."

Detective John Morris said leads provided by several witnesses and a telephone call from an anonymous tipster led to the arrests of Dimitri Lamar Potts and Glen Timothy Stout on suspicion of murder. The two will be tried as adults.

U.S. Airways to stop serving peanuts over allergy concerns


PHOENIX (AP) -- US Airways will stop serving peanuts on its flights because of concerns about passengers who are allergic to the snacks.

The airline expects to exhaust its peanut supply this month and will then offer passengers pretzels or mixed nuts without peanuts.

Passengers may still bring their own peanuts or food items containing peanuts on flights.

"The flight may not be peanut-free, but we will no longer serve them," Valerie Wunder, a spokeswoman for US Airways Group Inc. said Saturday.

Several other major airlines have already stopped serving peanuts after peanut allergy groups expressed their members' fears of a dangerous in-flight reaction.

US Airways stopped serving peanuts in the late 1990s but began offering them after the carrier combined operations last year with American West Airlines, which served the snack to passengers, Wunder said.

"We haven't had any kind of backlash," Wunder said. "We are trying to help a large percentage of the population."

Pakistan bans 'Da Vinci Code'


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan on Saturday banned cinemas from showing "The Da Vinci Code" because it contained what officials called blasphemous material about Jesus.

Although the film has not been screened in any theater in mostly-Muslim Pakistan, authorities decided to ban it out of respect for the feelings of the country's minority Christians.

Earlier this week, Christians staged protests in two Pakistani cities against the movie, demanding a global ban. Christians make up about 3 percent of Pakistan's 150 million people.

The film version of Dan Brown's murder mystery novel is based around the premise that Jesus Christ and one of his followers, Mary Magdalene, had children whose descendants are still alive.

"Islam teaches us to respect all prophets of Allah mighty, and degradation of any prophet is tantamount to defamation of the rest," Minister for Culture Ghulam Jamal was quoted as saying by the Associated Press of Pakistan.

Shahbaz Bhatti, a prominent Christian leader, thanked the country's leadership and said the ban will go a long way to ensuring sectarian harmony.

"The Da Vinci Code is a sacrilegious act in the guise of freedom of expression and fiction," Bhatti said Saturday. "It has hurt the religious sentiments of Christians and Muslims throughout the world."

He also criticized Brown, saying the author had "evil intentions" and wanted "to undermine the historical as well as theological truth about Jesus Christ."

Demonstrators cheer return of bears to French Pyrenees


TOULOUSE, France (AP) -- Best of luck, Balou!

Hundreds of people -- hugging teddy bears, dressed as bears, singing bear-loving songs -- rallied Saturday in support of four bears released in the French Pyrenees in a contentious repopulation effort.

A 4-year-old male, nicknamed Balou and weighing 194 pounds, was set free Friday, the fourth brown bear to find a mountain home here in recent years.

Fearing clashes with angry farmers, the demonstrators switched their rally venue from Bagneres-de-Luchon, near where Balou was released, to the regional capital, Toulouse. The march unfolded peacefully, and included top Green Party politicians and members of animal rights groups, including the Brigitte Bardot Foundation and the World Wildlife Federation.

Pyrenean farmers have protested the program, fearing bear attacks on their livestock. After brown bears disappeared from the Pyrenees in the 1980s, authorities released three bears in the region in 1996, and one of them killed 165 sheep last year.

"We understand the problems of the farmers ... but the bear should not be a scapegoat in the crisis of farming life," environmentalist Christian Agisu said.

Another marcher, Roland Guichard, called the reintroduction of bears "a reparation of past losses."

"Don't Touch My Bear" read some placards. Some marchers chanted "Bears, shepherds, sheepdogs -- let's live together."

Marchers submitted a petition with more than 126,000 signatures in support of the program.