Driver convicted of felony for throwing ice into another car spared from prison

By: Associated Press | Wednesday, February 21, 2007 6:54 PM PST ∞

STAFFORD, Va. -- A woman who hurled a McDonald's cup of ice into a car that cut her off in traffic was sentenced to probation instead of prison Wednesday.

Jessica Hall, 25, could have gotten two years behind bars after being convicted last month of maliciously throwing a missile -- the cup of ice -- into an occupied vehicle in what was dubbed the "McMissile" case. No one was injured in the incident last July on Interstate 95.

Hall thanked Judge Frank A. Hoss Jr. and wept after he put her on probation for five years. She has been in jail since Jan. 4. Though she was ordered free on the Virginia charges, she remained held there on a Mississippi warrant on suspicion of writing bad checks.

In Virginia, prosecutor Daniel M. Chichester wanted her sent to prison, saying, "It is important to remember that it is not what is thrown but the danger created by that act that Virginia law seeks to protect against."

Hall said traffic had slowed to a crawl when another car cut her off twice, once causing her to swerve onto the shoulder. She flung the cup of ice into the other car, and it landed all over the driver's girlfriend.

The Jacksonville, N.C., woman is a mother of three, and her husband is serving his third tour in Iraq. She said she was planning to go to nursing school.

"Now people are going to see me as an angry, road rage, convicted felon. And it really upsets me," she told The Washington Post. "I must have been wrong ... but seriously, God. Lesson learned. Lesson learned is one hour in this place."

Anna Nicole Smith's mother says her daughter wanted to be buried near her idol, Marilyn Monroe

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- Anna Nicole Smith's estranged mother tearfully acknowledged Wednesday that her daughter last told her she wanted to be buried in California near her idol Marilyn Monroe -- an admission that could hurt the woman's fight to have the pinup laid to rest in her native Texas.

Virgie Arthur, 55, said her last conversation with her daughter about her burial came more than 10 years ago.

"Wherever the stars are buried, that's where she wanted to be buried," said Arthur, a heavyset woman with bleached blond hair.

The testimony came in a dispute between Arthur and Howard K. Stern, the lawyer who had been Smith's boyfriend for many years. Stern wants to bury the former centerfold in the Bahamas with her son, Daniel, who died last September at age 20 of apparently drug-related causes.

Arthur said she believed any mother would want to be buried with her children. She said she wants to exhume the son and rebury him in Texas.

Smith, 39, died Feb. 8 in a Florida hotel of unknown causes.

The Florida hearing is just one part of the legal battle surrounding Smith. In California, a judge is trying to determine who fathered Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, who could inherit millions, depending on how Smith's estate is divided.

Stern is listed as the father on the birth certificate, but photographer Larry Birkhead, who once dated Smith, says the girl is his.

On Tuesday, Stern testified that Smith had insisted at her son's funeral on being buried with him in the Bahamas. But Stern also acknowledged that she had once asked to be buried next to Monroe.

On the stand in Fort Lauderdale, Arthur was hammered with questions about any compensation she has or would receive from news organizations for access to interviews or footage after the deaths of her daughter and grandson.

She frequently said no to questions about arrangements with specific media outlets, and sidestepped other questions or claimed she didn't understand them.

"Have you in any fashion profited at all from the death of your daughter?" asked Krista Barth, an attorney for Stern.

Arthur stared for a moment. "I'm trying to process that question," she said. Then Arthur attempted to deflect the attention, pointing at Stern.

"He has," she said.

It was a refrain Arthur repeated several times in an attempt to raise suspicions about Stern and the unsolved deaths of her daughter and grandson.

"I knew she would be next. My grandson did not overdose. Howard was there when he died, and Howard was there when my daughter died. And he has my granddaughter now and it is not even his child. I'm afraid for her life as well," Arthur said, crying. "Please, help us."

Stern shook his head. Earlier in Arthur's testimony, he angrily rose from his seat, but the judge interrupted him before he could complete a sentence.

"You have no podium here, Mr. Stern," the judge said. "Appreciate you being here, though."

For a second time, Broward County's chief medical examiner, Dr. Joshua Perper, warned the judge that little time remains before Smith's body becomes too decomposed for a public viewing. Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin promised a ruling by Friday.

Deterioration begins at the moment of death, and embalming only slows the process, so the face could undergo unsightly changes in color. Stern and Arthur were brought to the morgue to have a viewing of the body during the court's lunchtime break.

There were comical moments Wednesday. The judge mistakenly referred to Perper as "Dr. Pepper." And Arthur asked if she could "plead the Fifth" on her age.

Smith was the widow of Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II. The two married in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. She had been fighting his family over his estimated $500 million fortune since his death in 1995.

Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy in Fort Lauderdale, Damian Grass in Miami and Jeff Wilson in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Student's hostile breakup witnessed by thousands on campus, YouTube

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Was it live ... or was it just a stunt for YouTube? A one-time college couple say their melodramatic Valentine's Day breakup -- complete with singers, hundreds of spectators and a profanity-laced tirade -- was real. Those who were there say it all seemed a little too staged.

Still, there's no question it's an Internet hit.

"It really wasn't supposed to be like this," said Mindy Moorman, the girlfriend who got dumped. "The fact that it's gotten so big is quite comical to us."

The various videos of Moorman's hostile breakup with University of North Carolina senior Ryan Burke have been watched more than 300,000 times as of Wednesday -- making it one of the most popular clips on YouTube.com in recent weeks.

Burke said Wednesday he invited Moorman, a sophomore at nearby North Carolina State University and his girlfriend of four months, to join him at a popular gathering spot on the UNC Chapel Hill campus for a "surprise." It was not only Valentine's Day, but Moorman's birthday. The couple had plans for a dinner date that night.

Hundreds of students and several photographers were waiting for the couple on campus after Burke promised "a bad public breakup" on the Web site facebook.com: "You don't want to watch, but you can't look away."

Burke greeted Moorman with a hug. Then she appeared surprised when an a cappella group of singers started belting out the Dixie Chicks hit "I'm Not Ready to Make Nice" instead of Moorman's favorite tune, Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl."

Burke confronted her about her alleged infidelity and dumped her in front of the raucous crowd. Moorman responded with an angry rant filled with unprintable words. Those watching surrounded the couple, their cheers and chants keeping the argument going for several minutes.

"To be honest, it wasn't really about her," Burke said. "I thought the relationship was headed that way anyway, so I just wanted to see people's reactions to the breakup."

Burke, a history major, said the breakup was something of an experiment in human behavior. But he also said it was genuine -- he was furious about Moorman's alleged cheating.

"It was like they were reading from a script," said James Mundia, a manager at UNC Chapel Hill's student TV station, who helped edit the online footage. "There wasn't a lot of passion for a breakup where there's a lot of raw emotion.

"But I guess that's YouTube. It didn't matter if it was real or if it was fake, everyone wanted it to be real. People wanted that entertainment."

Despite the very public breakup, Moorman and Burke said they are still on speaking terms. The Charlotte natives have known each other for years, and Moorman said they have since shared laughs remembering the incident. Burke said he has received thousands of comments and e-mails -- some vulgar, some encouraging.

Moorman, a political science major who is thinking of going into politics, said she does have one regret: With her public breakup forever memorialized -- and easy for friends, family and potential employers to find on the Internet -- she admits, "I probably did say the f-word a little much."

"As my mother said, 'Mindy, how do you expect to be elected now?"' she said.

Body of crewman found in sunken boat off Massachusetts; search ends for 2 still missing

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) -- Divers found the body of a crewman on a sunken fishing boat in Nantucket Sound on Wednesday, and the search for two more men ended because debris in the wreck makes more dives too hazardous.

State police said the divers searched the entire vessel Wednesday except the engine room, which was blocked by debris. The unidentified body was found in a bunk room.

The Lady of Grace, based in New Bedford, went down in an icy storm on Jan. 26 off Cape Cod. The body of the captain, Antonio Barroqueiro, 50, was found three days later.

The other fishermen on board were: Rogerio Ventura, Mario Farinhas and Joao Silva.

Parents of one of world's tiniest preemies get to take her home from hospital

MIAMI (AP) -- Parents of one of the world's smallest premature babies got to take her home Wednesday for the first time since she was delivered last fall.

Amillia Sonja Taylor has known only an incubator for a bed at Baptist Children's Hospital since she was delivered in October after less than 22 weeks in the womb.

"The baby is healthy and thriving and left Baptist Children's Hospital today after four months in our neonatal intensive care unit," hospital spokeswoman Liz Latta said.

Amillia, who was just 9.5 inches at birth and weighed less than 10 ounces, will still require oxygen at home and a developmental specialist will follow up with her and her parents to track her neurological development.

The infant now weighs about 4.5 pounds and is just over 15.5 inches long.

Amillia's parents, Eddie and Sonja Taylor of Homestead declined to speak with reporters Wednesday.

Doctors had hoped to release Amillia from the hospital Tuesday but kept her an extra day to monitor a low white blood cell count that could have indicated a vulnerability to infection.

Full-term births come after 37 to 40 weeks, and few babies born before 22 weeks survive.

Amillia suffered respiratory and digestive problems, as well as a mild brain hemorrhage, but doctors believe those problems will not have major long-term effects.

Amillia was conceived in vitro and was delivered by Caesarean section after an infection caused her mother to go into premature labor, doctors said.

Despite cancer, dog finds the bad guys

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- You can't keep a good dog down, especially a bloodhound.

Between trips to New York for cancer treatment, J.J. the police dog still is on the beat, catching a crime suspect hiding behind a Dumpster last Friday.

"That's what J.J. lives for," said Salt Lake City police Sgt. Chris Ward, who oversees the K-9 patrol.

J.J. had surgery to remove a cancerous growth in his mouth and has been traveling to New York every other week for treatment.

J.J. is owned by Officer Mike Serio, who is responsible for J.J.'s medical costs, which are estimated to exceed $13,000.

"Mike is going to pay for (the treatment) regardless, but donations have been coming from as far away as Virginia, Montana and all across the state of Utah," Ward said.

J.J., age 9, has helped police catch 233 suspects.

Palestinian woman gives birth to quintuplets in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- The birth of quintuplets brought chaos to a blue-painted maternity ward in a Gaza City hospital Wednesday, with flustered doctors trying to keep order among a crush of photographers and a slightly bewildered father.

Layla Abu Nofal, 25, delivered the five healthy babies -- four boys and a girl -- by Caesarean section in the Shifa Hospital.

"The fifth was a surprise," said her husband, Mohammed. He said his wife took hormone treatments to get pregnant but that they had expected only four babies.

The Gaza Strip has one of the world's highest birth rates. Two years ago, another woman had sextuplets in Shifa Hospital.

Still, the quintuplets created a frenzy at the maternity ward, where the babies lay side by side with midwives peering over them. Bemused nurses and doctors tried to keep order among TV cameramen, photographers and a Palestine TV correspondent with a microphone.

The couple already have a 5-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy.

"Everybody in the family picked a name" for the babies, Mohammed Abu Nofal said, but he only remembered them with some prodding from his mother-in-law: Mohammed, Ahmed, Hussam, Abdul Rahman, and Iman.

Abu Nofal, a 28-year-old policeman who earns $470 a month, said he wasn't sure how they would afford to raise their seven children, alongside 11 members of his extended family.

"I don't think we've got enough money for diapers and baby milk to be honest with you," he said.

Digital billboards light up debate over driver distractions

MINNETONKA, Minn. (AP) -- When officials in this Minneapolis suburb didn't like the two eye-popping digital billboards that Clear Channel erected along the freeway, they pulled the plug. They had the power company cut off the electricity after just a few days.

That move in December sparked a court fight that local governments and the advertising industry alike are watching as digital billboards with fast-changing messages become more prevalent.

The glowing signs offer advertisers a tantalizing new means of cutting through the urban clutter. But some officials worry that the bright billboards, which display a new image every few seconds, are another dangerous distraction for drivers, many of whom are already multitasking behind the wheel.

"If you see a big bright screen and it's flipping its image like a computer, that's going to pull your eyes off the road for a couple seconds," said Bill Steinbicker, a retired marketing executive who supports his city's fight against Clear Channel, the nation's biggest outdoor-advertising company.

Clear Channel has installed eight digital billboards in the Twin Cities and similar numbers in Las Vegas, Cleveland, Tampa, Fla., Milwaukee and Albuquerque, N.M. Other outdoor advertising companies are also incorporating more digital billboards.

Besides being eye-catching, the billboards offer versatility the old-style signs can't match. For instance, sales can be advertised on a billboard as soon as they take effect. Or a fast-food restaurant could promote breakfast sandwiches in the morning and burgers at dinner time.

About 400 of the billboards have been erected nationally. The Outdoor Advertising Association of America estimates that will grow by 4,000 in the next decade.

In Minnesota, Clear Channel's digital billboards change images every eight seconds. On a recent afternoon, a digital billboard on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis cycled from an ad for the TV show "24" to an ad for a local furniture store, to one for Burger King.

That eight-second timing is based on a Minnesota Department of Transportation study that showed roadside images that change at intervals greater than every six seconds aren't a significant distraction to drivers, said Tom McCarver, a vice president for Clear Channel's outdoor advertising division in Minnesota.

"Frankly, the greater distractions are inside the car -- the cell phone, the kids in the back seat," McCarver said.

Mike Pina, a spokesman for AAA in Washington, said the motor club does not have a position on the billboards. But he added: "We don't like people to be distracted when they're driving in general. We've got some concerns about cell phones, people messing with the radio. In general we think distracted driving is a problem. We think people need to be as focused as they can be."

A just-released report from the U.S. Department of Transportation examined several studies on digital billboards and found the evidence of any hazard inconclusive.

That hasn't stopped several cities from blocking the billboards while they study safety and aesthetic concerns. Besides Minnetonka, St. Paul and Des Moines, Iowa, have put moratoriums on digital billboards.

"If you see them at night they can be incredibly bright," said Kathy Lantry, president of the St. Paul City Council. "I remember the first time I drove by one and it changed messages, I just thought, `Wow, that's distracting.' I'm not a fan."

In Minnesota, Clear Channel recently started making digital billboards available for the display of Amber Alerts when children are feared abducted. McCarver said those plans were in the works before the legal dispute.

Minnetonka officials won the early round in that fight by arguing that the company put up the billboards before receiving the necessary permits.

A judge upheld the city's right to cut the power, and Minnetonka swiftly passed its own moratorium on the billboards. Clear Channel is challenging the moratorium.

City officials, in the meantime, plan to revise billboard zoning laws that were written years ago, long before digital billboards.

"We don't think we can block the advance of this technology. It's certainly coming," City Attorney Desyl Peterson said. "But we are certainly going to assert our right as a city to regulate it."

Ill. man sent to prison for stealing $5 donation intended for wounded officer

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- A convicted felon was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for plucking a $5 bill from a collection jar intended to help a policeman blinded in a shooting.

Richard Hedger II, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to felony theft for stealing from the jar, placed on a thrift-store counter. Money in the jar was meant for Belleville police Sgt. Jon Brough, 48, who was shot in the face and permanently blinded in November by a double-slaying suspect who later killed himself.

"We've had so much community support, then you get someone who steps in and snatches money," said police Lt. Don Sax, whose said his dealings with Hedger have included peace disturbances, assaults and other thefts.

A cashier at the Community Kindness Resale Shoppe said she saw Hedger with the jar just before she noticed a $5 bill missing Dec. 27. The shop's general manager said Hedger apologized before he was taken away in handcuffs.

Hedger was charged with a felony because of a prior felony conviction. He received a two-year sentence in 2004 after pleading guilty to aggravated battery, for spitting on another Belleville police officer.

Prosecutor: Foster mother guilty of murder even if others helped in boy's closet death

BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) -- Sharing the blame with others isn't enough to save a woman from being convicted of murder in the death of her 3-year-old foster son, who was bound in a blanket and packing tape and left in a closet, prosecutors told jurors Wednesday.

All it would take to convict Liz Carroll would be determining that she committed a felony that resulted in the death of Marcus Fiesel, prosecutors said in closing arguments.

Guilt could be measured by "not only what she did, but what she failed to do," Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Mark Piepmeir said.

He discounted the defense contention that Carroll was intimidated into going along with her bully husband, David Carroll Jr., 29, and their live-in companion, Amy Baker.

"Even though she tried to share the blame with David and Amy Baker, what she admitted was sufficient to find her guilty of these crimes," Piepmeir said.

Carroll, 30, also is charged with involuntary manslaughter, kidnapping, felonious assault and three counts of child endangerment.

Marcus, who was developmentally disabled, died in August at the family's home in Batavia, east of Cincinnati, while Carroll was gone overnight at a family reunion in Kentucky.

Defense attorney Gregory Cohen said Carroll was a "beaten-down woman trying to save her family and protect David."

She was terrorized by her husband's violent tendencies and by Baker's sexual conquest of her husband, he said in his closing.

"Two people had responsibility to protect Marcus Fiesel," Cohen said. "David Carroll has a court date just down the hall."

David Carroll also is charged with murder and is to be tried separately next month.

Baker has not been charged, but testified Monday that she accompanied David Carroll when he allegedly burned the body and dumped the remains in the Ohio River. Prosecutors agreed not to prosecute Baker in exchange for her testimony, unless any evidence shows she had hands-on involvement in the boy's death.

Wis. man who mistook porn DVD screams for rape charged with breaking into apartment with sword

OCONOMOWOC, Wis. (AP) -- A man says he broke into an apartment with a cavalry sword because he thought he heard a woman being raped, but the sound actually was from a pornographic movie his upstairs neighbor was watching.

"Now I feel stupid," said James Van Iveren, who has been charged in the case. "This really is nothing, nothing but a mistake."

According to a criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning Feb. 12, damaging the frame and lock.

"Where is she?" Van Iveren demanded, thrusting the sword at the neighbor, the complaint said. "Where is she?"

The neighbor told police Van Iveren became increasingly aggressive as he repeated the question, insisting that he had heard a woman being raped. The complaint said that, with the sword pointed at him, the neighbor led Van Iveren throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone.

The neighbor later played for police the part of the DVD he believed Van Iveren heard downstairs.

Van Iveren, 39, of Oconomowoc, was charged with criminal trespass, criminal damage and disorderly conduct, all while using a dangerous weapon, and is due in court March 5. Together, the misdemeanor counts carry a maximum sentence of 33 months in jail.

Van Iveren said Tuesday that he heard a woman "screaming for help," grabbed the sword, bounded up the stairs, kicked in the apartment door and confronted the man who lived there.

"I intended to hold it behind my back and knock. But I froze and instead, what happened happened," he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Contesting his neighbor's account, Van Iveren said he didn't look anywhere in the apartment except the front room, and that he never threatened the neighbor with the sword.

"I had the sword extended. But that was all," he said.

Van Iveren, who lives with his mother in the downstairs apartment, said he did not call police when he heard the noises because he does not have a telephone. He said he barely knew the upstairs tenant.

Police seized Van Iveren's sword, which he said was a family heirloom.

Mostly recovered from 16-story fall last month, Wis. man glad he can't remember plunge

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Just a month after his 16-story fall and merciful landing onto a hotel overhang, Joshua Hanson is off crutches from a broken leg, mostly healed from his other injuries and thankful he has no memory of the plunge.

"I feel really lucky I don't remember it because I probably would have some pretty serious nightmares," said the 29-year-old bar owner from Blair, Wis., who crashed out a hotel window Jan. 20 after a night drinking with his friends.

"I'm walking without a crutch, I'm getting around pretty good. I mean, I feel really good," Hanson said Tuesday after a couple weeks of recuperation at his parents' home.

His two collapsed lungs and torn trachea have healed, and he's been slowly returning to work at Heine's bar.

Hanson recalls drinking with his pals at a couple of bars in St. Paul before going back to the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency. They stopped by a darts tournament at the hotel before heading to their rooms in the early morning hours.

"Then we come back off the elevator and that's when, for whatever reason ... I decided to take off running," Hanson said. "I don't know why I took off running or what really led up to it, but -- I did."

Sprinting down the hallway alone, he said he was confused by the reflection on the window pane at the end. With a crash, the 275-pound former prep football player and wrestler broke through a double-paned window with a safety bar.

He fell onto an asphalt-covered overhang one floor above the street. The overhang probably saved his life because it helped cushion his fall, according to emergency officials and a physics professor.

Asked if he could explain why he survived, Hanson said: "I wish I knew, for real I do. Somebody had a plan for me." He added that one reason he survived is his 8-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn.

The fall has made him more contemplative and given him a fresh perspective, he said, though he didn't know whether it would cause him to drink less.

"I went to church the first Sunday I got home, no doubt about it," he said. "There ain't too many days go by that I don't thank God that I'm still here."