Sentencing

Two 17-year-old girls have been sentenced for torturing and butchering an elderly woman, less than three weeks after a pair of 10-year-olds were charged with murdering a toddler. Again, a troubled nation is asking, how could this happen? Edna Phillips, 70, was throttled with her dog's leash and stabbed or slashed 86 times. The mental images of the crime have shocked the nation just as the video pictures of little James Bulger being led to his death did last month.

The bride accused of duping her family, friends and community into thinking she had terminal cancer  -- and receiving a dream wedding, honeymoon and gifts because of it -- was sentenced to time served Wednesday and  released after two months in jail. Jessica Vega also must pay more than $13,000 in restitution to the people she victimized, such as the shop owners who arranged for Vega’s free wedding dress, veil and shoes.

On summer nights in the mid-1960s, while black-and-white television crackled elsewhere in his Staten Island home with news of Southern violence and Vietnam, Bobby Lasnik would stretch out in his bedroom to let the righteous soundtrack of the civil rights movement waft into his impressionable teenage soul. Tuned in to WBAI-FM, coming across the water from Manhattan, he heard baleful laments about injustice that he would carry with him for a lifetime. "Suddenly there was someone speaking a certain kind of truth to you. You'd say, 'Wow!

NEW YORK - Dharun Ravi had appeared stoic for three hours, but he broke down in tears as his mother sobbed beside him while pleading with the judge to spare her son from prison. She got what she wanted, up to a point: Judge Glenn Berman on Monday ordered Ravi to spend 30 days in jail for spying with a webcam on his gay Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi, who killed himself days later. Ravi could have received a 10-year term for a crime jurors concluded was motivated by anti-gay bias.

Most voters have by now received their sample ballots, and those who plan to vote by mail are sending in their applications. The June 5 election is underway right now. It is noteworthy for several reasons. Los Angeles County voters will be selecting a new district attorney, and this is the first time since 1964 that there is no incumbent trying to hold onto the seat. The field is wide open. To win outright in this nonpartisan race, a candidate must get more than 50% of the vote.

A federal judge in Chicago delayed sentencing for convicted fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko as one of his lawyers said he was working with prosecutors in hopes of getting a reduced prison term. Sentencing is now set for Dec. 16. "We are trying to work toward an agreement that would affect sentencing," attorney Bill Ziegelmueller said after the hearing. Rezko was a major political fundraiser who bankrolled campaigns of Sen. Barack Obama and Democratic Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich. He did not supply any money to Obama's current campaign, and the Democratic presidential nominee has not been accused of wrongdoing.

The leader of the Narragansett tribe, Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas, was ordered to perform 150 hours of community service for brawling with state troopers during a police raid on a tribal smoke shop in Charleston. The sentencing ends a case that began five years ago after tribal members fought with state police who were shutting down a shop on tribal land that was selling cigarettes without collecting state taxes.

Sprinter Houston McTear failed to appear in Santa Monica Superior Court for sentencing in a cocaine-sales case, prompting Judge James Albracht to issue an arrest warrant. McTear previously had pleaded guilty to the charge and had been free on bail pending sentencing. He had been arrested for allegedly selling cocaine in a Santa Monica park.

A San Diego woman who escaped from a Michigan prison more than 30 years ago and remade her life as a suburban mother pleaded guilty to escape after a judge said he would give her probation. Susan LeFevre, 53, was in court for a routine hearing on the escape charge. But that changed after the unexpected offer from Wayne County Circuit Judge Leonard Townsend, defense attorney William Swor said. Sentencing is set for Sept. 24. LeFevre must serve at least 5 1/2 years on the drug charge that led to her original sentence before a chance at parole.

Rapper T.I. pleaded guilty in Atlanta on Thursday to federal weapons possession charges, and will receive a sentence that includes prison time after he completes a period of community service. In the year that he is awaiting sentencing, T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, must complete 1,500 hours of community service, at least 1,000 of them talking to youth groups about the pitfalls of guns, gangs and drugs. Harris, 27, whose sixth album debuted at No. 1 on the sales charts last July, pleaded guilty to possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers, unlawful possession of machine guns and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.

Carlos DeLuna was, in all likelihood, murdered by the state of Texas on Dec. 7, 1989. It's hard to come to any other conclusion after reading an exhaustive analysis of his case published online by a Columbia law school professor and his students. And he may not be the only innocent death row inmate executed by that notably bloodthirsty state. Cameron Todd Willingham, a man whose conviction for setting a fire that killed his three young daughters was based on spectacularly shoddy forensics work, was injected with a death cocktail on Feb. 17, 2004.

A Newport Beach woman who arranged for a former NFL player to kill her wealthy boyfriend in a 1994 plot to collect $1 million in insurance money was sentenced Friday to life in prison. But sentencing for onetime New England Patriot linebacker Eric Naposki was continued to Aug. 10 after he refused to leave his courthouse holding cell. The prosecutor called Naposki's actions "a final blaze of no class and cowardice" by the man who fired six gunshots into the chest of Bill McLaughlin, who died in his Balboa Coves home.

A Riverside County jury convicted a parolee Friday of first-degree murder for shooting a Riverside police officer in 2010, a brutal slaying that occurred after the officer pleaded with the killer. Earl Ellis Green, 46, faces a possible death sentence for the murder of Officer Ryan Bonaminio, an Iraq War veteran who had been on the force for four years. The jury deliberated for about three hours before returning with the guilty verdict with special circumstances that would make Green subject to execution.

The director of two movies shot on Cape Cod has been sentenced to a maximum of three years in state prison after admitting that he exaggerated expenses when he applied for Massachusetts film tax credits. Daniel Adams pleaded guilty last month to larceny and making a false claim when he applied for state film tax credits for the 2008 movie "The Golden Boys," with Bruce Dern and David Carradine, and "The Lightkeepers," a 2009 movie starring Richard Dreyfuss and Blythe Danner. Prosecutors said Adams overcharged the state by $4.7 million for expenses related to those movies.

A convicted killer who died on death row while his appeal languished before the California Supreme Court should have his case decided posthumously, his attorney told the state high court. Scott F. Kauffman, who represented Dennis Lawley for 19 years, contends that his client was innocent of a 1989 murder for hire that sent him to San Quentin. Lawley, he said, deserves a ruling on his claims, even if the outcome will have no practical consequence. "Mr. Lawley's death does not erase the injustice of his conviction and sentence," Kauffman told the court in a written motion.

An Orange County man who swindled elderly people out of their homes after promising to help them avoid foreclosure was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison under California's tough three-strikes law. Defense lawyers and prosecutors across the state could not recall any other case in which a white-collar offender received such a lengthy sentence under a statute typically applied in violent crime cases. The sentencing of Timothy Barnett was unusual because his entire criminal record involved fraud.

A Newport Beach woman who arranged for a former NFL player to kill her wealthy boyfriend in a 1994 plot to collect $1 million in insurance money was sentenced Friday to life in prison. But sentencing for onetime New England Patriot linebacker Eric Naposki was continued to Aug. 10 after he refused to leave his courthouse holding cell. The prosecutor called Naposki's actions "a final blaze of no class and cowardice" by the man who fired six gunshots into the chest of Bill McLaughlin, who died in his Balboa Coves home.

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that an evangelical preacher had conned an heiress out of nearly $500,000 and ordered him to repay the money plus $250,000 in punitive damages. Mel Tari, 48, of Dana Point, an evangelist and author of several Christian books, must repay Christine Kline, 41, of Denver for the small fortune she signed over to him. Kline, who had inherited Capital Printing Co.

LAS VEGAS — The two prime ribs of boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, continue to create their sizzle separately. Their fight of the century, any century, seems to be going the way of the Edsel and the eight-track tape. Passage of time doesn't heal all, but it sure does dull things. It is Mayweather's time now. Boxing is nothing if not a huge attention grab, and Mayweather is in the center ring of the circus he so deeply loves. He will fight Miguel Cotto at the MGM Grand here May 5, and that correctly has the current spotlight.