Sentenceing

A man convicted of fatally shooting a South-Central Los Angeles doughnut shop clerk during a videotaped robbery was sentenced to life without parole Wednesday. A surveillance videotape and an eyewitness account led a jury to convict Ronnie Law, 37, of first- degree murder for last year's slaying of Conrado Cruz, a 26-year-old clerk at Winchell's Donut House on Florence Avenue at Main Street. Law was on parole for possession of illegal drugs at the time of the shooting. His attorney, Ted T.

A San Fernando Valley jeweler at the center of an insider-trading scandal pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and agreed to turn over $1.27 million in ill-gotten stock gains made from tips from a top auditor at accounting giant KPMG. Bryan Shaw, 52, of Lake Sherwood admitted Monday to conspiring with KPMG auditor Scott London to trade in the stocks of the accounting firm's clients. The pair, who became friends after meeting on a golf course, plotted to profit from the market in what federal prosecutors described as a "severe breach of trust.

An identical twin whose plot to kill her sister made headlines around the world sobbed uncontrollably Friday as a judge sentenced her to 26 years to life in prison. Despite her emotional, last-minute protest of innocence, Jeen "Gina" Han, 24, dubbed "the evil twin," received the maximum sentence. "It is obvious Miss Han is a danger to society, particularly her own family," said Orange County Superior Court Judge Eileen C. Moore. "All of her family have been victims of her crimes."

We got another dog right away. That wasn't the plan. But back in March, less than two weeks after Rex died and when I still had faint bruises from digging my fingers into my forehead amid uncontrollable sobs, I signed us up to "foster" a Saint Bernard mix that had been rescued from a crack den. It was a classic rebound move, but the unbearable silence of the dogless house was too much to take. You don't realize how much a dog's presence defines the contours of your home until, in its absence, the walls seem to relocate themselves.

Rapper-actor Snoop Dogg will avoid jail time after pleading no contest Wednesday to two felony charges -- but he might be legally allowed to continue smoking marijuana. The entertainer, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, entered the plea to a charge of gun possession by a convicted felon and a marijuana-related drug charge, prosecutors said. Dogg, 35, appeared before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling in Pasadena clad in a leather jacket, black jeans and a T-shirt.

As hard as it was to spend 35 years in prison for stealing a black-and-white television, Junior Allen has found freedom frustrating too. Despite extensive prison records in North Carolina, where he spent more than half his life as inmate No. 0004604, Allen has been unable to establish his identity in rural Georgia, where he now lives with his sister, or in Alabama, where he was born 65 years ago to sharecropper parents.

We got another dog right away. That wasn't the plan. But back in March, less than two weeks after Rex died and when I still had faint bruises from digging my fingers into my forehead amid uncontrollable sobs, I signed us up to "foster" a Saint Bernard mix that had been rescued from a crack den. It was a classic rebound move, but the unbearable silence of the dogless house was too much to take. You don't realize how much a dog's presence defines the contours of your home until, in its absence, the walls seem to relocate themselves.

A young woman whose diary entries told of her fear of her ex-boyfriend and helped convict the man of her murder were read in court again Friday as he was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. "I swear to God that I hate Richard Namey," Sarah Jane Rodriguez had scrawled on a scrap of paper days before she was shot to death. "I hope he goes to prison for life. He is just so very mean to me."

After walking the red carpet for "Spartacus: War of the Damned" last month in L.A., Lucy Lawless walked into a New Zealand court Thursday to be sentenced for a little illegal activity involving a very big boat. Lawless was sentenced to 120 hours of community service and ordered to pay a fine of $547 to a port company after pleading guilty last June to trespassing on the Noble Discoverer in February 2012. Doesn't sound too bad, all things considered - and indeed, the former "Xena" star sounded pretty positive after court, because she and six other Greenpeace protesters had been facing up to three years in prison (unlikely for a first-time offender)

She was a popular teacher, known for working past midnight on school projects and being a compassionate ally to her students. He was one of the special ones: a sixth-grader with whom she had recognized a kindred spirit when he entered her class, talented and intense.

Behind an unassuming storefront in Orange County's Little Saigon, prosecutors say, was the driving force behind an illicit international trade in rhinoceros horns. Vinh Chuong "Jimmy" Kha and Felix Kha may never have journeyed to the savannas of Africa, but by trafficking in hundreds of pounds of the prized horns that some Vietnamese and Chinese believe can cure cancer, the father and son were responsible for the hundreds of rhinos targeted by poachers, prosecutors said. "Their fingers might as well have been on the triggers of poachers' guns," Assistant U.S. Atty.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. - Army Sgt. John Russell opened fire on U.S. mental health workers at a combat stress center in Iraq out of revenge after doctors said he was not eligible to leave the Army, prosecutors said Monday at the opening of Russell's court-martial on charges of premeditated murder. Five U.S. servicemen were shot to death at the Camp Liberty clinic in 2009. The defense claims that Russell suffered from chronic stress and mental illness that flamed into a psychotic fury.

Comedian Katt Williams avoided jail Thursday when he was sentenced to 90 days of community service after pleading no contest to misdemeanor reckless evasion of an officer in Sacramento. The original sentence was 180 days in county jail, according to the Sacramento Bee , but the judge converted it to the community service stretch with the other 90 days stayed if he does the work and stays out of trouble. The charge was originally a felony vehicle code violation. PHOTOS: Celebrity mug shots The chase that sparked the charge occurred last November, during a rough patch for the comic as he played dates on the West Coast and bumped up against the law repeatedly along the way. Driving a three-wheeled Can-Am Spyder motorcycle, Williams led police on a chase through sidewalks and walkways in downtown Sacramento after they approached him on a disturbing-the-peace complaint, Fox40 News reported at the time.

Newport Beach Councilwoman Leslie Daigle on Tuesday blasted the recent sentencing of a driver who killed a popular doctor in a September hit-and-run accident. Michael Jason Lopez, 40, of Anaheim was sentenced this month after pleading guilty to killing Catherine "Kit" Campion Ritz, who practiced in Newport and lived in Irvine, while she was bicycling along Newport Coast in September. Four years in prison and one year in county jail is too light a sentence for a man who left the doctor in the street to die, Daigle said during the oral reports portion of Tuesday's council meeting.

Lauryn Hill's sentence in her tax-evasion case has been postponed to May 6 because the singer had not yet paid restitution on the money she owes. She now has a two-week reprieve to gather the funds. The eight-time Grammy winner appeared in a New Jersey federal court Monday to receive her sentence on charges of not paying taxes on $1.8 million in earnings. She had entered a guilty plea to three counts of tax evasion in June 2012, admitting that she intentionally failed to file tax returns in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

When the casket that was supposed to hold the earthly remains of Jim Davis was finally lowered into the ground, the only thing missing was the late Mr. Davis. The coffin had been weighed down to simulate the approximate heft of a corpse. And Jim Davis was not inside the box. Federal prosecutors said the phony funeral was among the inventive tricks that Jean Crump - a onetime Long Beach mortician - used to loot insurance companies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. On Tuesday, she was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

A San Diego County woman who shot and killed her four children failed Monday to win a reprieve from the California Supreme Court, which voted unanimously to uphold her death sentence. In a ruling written by Justice Ming W. Chin, the state's highest court rejected an automatic appeal by Susan Dianne Eubanks, who was convicted of murdering her sons, Brandon, 14; Austin, 7; Brigham, 6; and Matthew, 4, in October 1997. After drinking and taking tranquilizers, Eubanks put a revolver to the temple of Brandon and shot him, according to the court's opinion.

The sentencing of six Florencia 13 gang members to life in prison appears to bring to a close a prolonged and terrifying spate of violence in the Florence-Firestone district allegedly brought on by orders from a prison gang member in solitary confinement 700 miles away. Beginning in 2004, the unincorporated Los Angeles County area north of Watts was the site of one of the region's worst gang sieges since the early 1990s, evolving into what some residents felt was a race war. The violence left dozens of people dead, including many with no gang affiliation, and required enormous county resources to combat.

Two Silicon Valley men were sentenced Monday for a "sextortion" plot in which they tried to extort professional poker players with threats of publicizing naked photographs and other private information stolen from email accounts. Tyler Schrier, 23, of Menlo Park was sentenced to 42 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy, extortion and unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information. As part of the plea, Schrier admitted he also extorted $26,000 from professional poker players in another plot.

A former bookie was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison for his role in a scheme to bribe basketball players at the University of San Diego. Richard Francis Garmo, 43, of El Cajon, was the eighth and last defendant to be sentenced in San Diego federal court after an investigation the FBI called Operation Hook Shot. Garmo and his co-defendants allegedly induced Brandon Johnson, the school's all-time leading scorer, to take bribes so that gamblers could win bets in Las Vegas.