Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome

A jury convicted Dick Keech of first-degree murder Tuesday, rejecting his unusual defense that the stress of being a prisoner in World War II caused him to shoot his son-in-law to death last year in a quiet Long Beach neighborhood. In a verdict likely to send Keech, 78, to state prison for the rest of his life, Long Beach Superior Court jurors found him guilty of murdering Nick Candy on May 21, 1996. As the verdict was read, Keech's lower lip quivered briefly.

A Long Beach man who shot his son-in-law to death on a quiet residential street in 1996--then said during a trial that he fired while flashing back to his days as a World War II prisoner of war--was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years to life in state prison. In imposing a sentence all but certain to send Dick Keech, 78, to prison for the rest of his life, Superior Court Judge William T. Garner said he was doing so with a "heavy heart" because he--like Keech--is a former Marine.

A Long Beach man who shot his son-in-law to death on a quiet residential street in 1996--then said during a trial that he fired while flashing back to his days as a World War II prisoner of war--was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years to life in state prison. In imposing a sentence all but certain to send Dick Keech, 78, to prison for the rest of his life, Superior Court Judge William T. Garner said he was doing so with a "heavy heart" because he--like Keech--is a former Marine.

A jury convicted Dick Keech of first-degree murder Tuesday, rejecting his unusual defense that the stress of being a prisoner in World War II caused him to shoot his son-in-law to death last year in a quiet Long Beach neighborhood. In a verdict likely to send Keech, 78, to state prison for the rest of his life, Long Beach Superior Court jurors found him guilty of murdering Nick Candy on May 21, 1996. As the verdict was read, Keech's lower lip quivered briefly.

A former crew member of the U.S. frigate Stark, charged with beating to death a Navy wife and her 3-year-old daughter, was suffering combat-related stress disorder after the ship was nearly sunk by an Iraqi missile, his lawyer said. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Walter Thomas Taylor, 22, charged with bludgeoning Paula Smits, 21, and her daughter, Amanda, with a hammer five days after the Stark limped home to its base at Mayport on Aug. 10, 1987.

A POW Vietnam War story that nobody wanted to touch and, once produced, was then closeted by a network uncertain what to do with it, finally reaches the home screen tonight, three years after it was made. Starring Ralph Macchio in the demanding title role, "The Last P.O.W.? The Bobby Garwood Story" (on Channel 7, 9 p.m.) is the gripping drama of the only U.S. serviceman to be court-martialed and convicted for collaborating with the Viet Cong.