Results tagged “trial”

Federal prosecutors plan to file additional charges against Chandra Levy's accused killer, Ingmar Guandique, the Post is reporting. The move will push the trial, originally scheduled to begin in January, all the way back to October, 2010. There's still no word on exactly what these new charges might be, but the change in trial date could end up coinciding with the end of Guandique's current 10-year prison term, which he's been serving for attacking two other women in Rock Creek Park. As the Post notes, prosecutors have said they will seek to have Guandique held in the D.C. jail for his trial in the event he ends up being released before it concludes.

The tortured case of the beating death of gay Maryland man Tony Hunter has at last drawn to a close, as D.C. Superior Court Judge Rafael Diaz sentenced defendant Robert Hannah, 19, to 180 days in jail on Wednesday, the Washington Blade reports. The sentence represents the maximum jail time allowable for Hannah's conviction on a misdemeanor assault charge. Hannah will also get credit for time served, the Blade says, which is about two months already. Hunter's mother told the paper she was "not pleased" with the outcome. There has been much public outcry on the reduced charges to which Hannah eventually was allowed to plead guilty, but ultimately a grand jury did not find sufficient evidence to pursue a manslaughter charge. Friends of the victim have maintained that Hunter was beaten in an unprovoked attack that may have been an anti-gay incident.

Breaking news from the Washington Post:

A D.C. Superior Court judge on Wednesday found Banita Jacks guilty of killing her four daughters in a case that shook the region for its cruelty.

Continue reading "Banita Jacks Found Guilty of Murdering Her Daughters"

So the Associated Press says that former D.C.-based FOX News producer Aaron Bruns got sentenced to 10 years in prison today for possession of child pornography, while just a few days before, former NPR science editor David Malakoff basically walked on the same charge, getting only five years probation. What was the difference between these two men? Bruns had a prior kiddie porn conviction from about ten years ago, when he was a college student in Michigan, while Malakoff had no previous record. Malakoff also testified that he had watched the videos in order to relive his own rape, which he said he experienced when he was 9 years-old, and the judge in his case obviously believed his story. Still, that's a pretty big disparity as far as sentencing goes. Without U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle's intervention, Malakoff would have been given six to eight years based on federal guidelines.

The bench trial in the case of Banita Jacks, who is accused of killing her four young daughters in a Southeast rowhouse over a year and a half ago, begins tomorrow. Jacks waived her right to a jury trial, although it is assumed that she probably have had a better chance at an acquittal in front of twelve jurors. Judge Frederick H. Weisberg -- who some may remember as a vital part of a story by Colbert I. King which won the Post a Pulitzer in 2003 -- will hear the case. Jacks adamantly declined to plead insanity, even going so far as to refuse to even meet with attorneys who suggested such a course of action. WaPo's Keith Alexander has a tidy roundup of the case to date, if you are looking to get caught up before proceedings start tomorrow.

We thought that it would be close to impossible to dethrone Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) as the District's King of Hearts, for having said the scummiest thing related to D.C.'s non-voting status in Congress that we had ever heard. But ladies and gentlemen, we were wrong. Meet the new King: Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska).

So Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has been found guilty on felony charges of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms. A jury today issued a guilty verdict in the corruption case, deciding that they did not believe that Stevens didn't know about the $250,000 worth of gifts he received from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., among others. The AP says that Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each of the seven counts, but will likely receive much less. Stevens is currently locked in a tight race with Anchorage mayor Mark Begich for his U.S. Senate seat. The question now is will he drop out, or continue running with a felony conviction which would most likely lead him to be expelled by the Senate anyway? Maybe he's counting on a pardon from President Bush?

The Hill reports that Michael Gorbey, the Virginia man who was convicted on weapons charges stemming from his January arrest for carrying a loaded shot gun and a samurai sword with him around Capitol Hill, has been sentenced to 22 years in prison. That's a pretty staggering sentence, which is the result of Gorbey's conviction on 14 charges, including one for possessing and transporting a "weapon of mass destruction." A couple of weeks after his arrest, police searching Gorbey's vehicle discovered he had also brought the components needed to construct a bomb with him.

In the face of so many other D.C. government corruption scandals, you'll be forgiven for having forgotten about former D.C. Department of Human Services employee Charles M. Brown, who was charged in 2006 for his involvement in a conspiracy with another employee to steal public assistance funds in 2004 and 2005. Interim Attorney General Peter Nickles today announced the conviction of Brown on 11 criminal charges, including identity theft, conspiracy, unlawful food stamp usage and fraud in obtaining public assistance.

The local Tampa Bay FOX affiliate, FOX13, is reporting that Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known in the media as the D.C. Madam who was last month convicted of money laundering, using the mail for illegal purposes and racketeering, has been found dead in Tarpon Springs, FL, of an apparent suicide.

If the D.C. Madam is convicted and no one cares, does she make a sound? Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam who got every Washington watcher all hot and bothered last year over her impending trial and purported client list, and then proceeded to bore everyone to tears with how mundane the scandal turned out to be, was found guilty today on charges of racketeering, mail fraud and money laundering. Not that you probably cared one way or the other. We know we didn't.