Sentencing

When Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr. was convicted of premeditated murder in the execution-style slaying of four Iraqis and sentenced to life in prison, his mother went numb. But not for long. Leahy's family, friends, former high school classmates and fellow soldiers mounted a counterstrike for leniency. They wrote letter after letter to the top Army official reviewing the case, attesting to his sterling character and good heart.

A jury spared a man convicted in a series of random nighttime shootings from the death penalty on Wednesday, sentencing him to life in prison. Samuel Dieteman, who pleaded guilty to two of six murders in the metropolitan Phoenix Serial Shooter case of 2005 and 2006, appeared stoic as the jury's decision was announced. "I'm truly sorry for the pain that I've caused to many, many people," Dieteman, 33, said after his sentence was read. He thanked the court for treating him like a human being.

A jury on Friday voted for the death penalty for a 26-year-old man who was convicted of fatally shooting an off-duty Los Angeles County police captain during an attempted robbery nearly five years ago. "This was a brutal, violent, senseless killing of a veteran police officer, whose life was snuffed out for nothing," said Darren Levine of the deputy district attorney's Crimes Against Police Officers Section. "The jury made the correct call. This defendant has never expressed genuine remorse."

Stevan Dozier was 25 when he punched a woman in the face to snatch her purse, another episode in the cash-for-crack crime wave that plagued America's big cities during the 1980s. Over the next eight years, he would be arrested three more times for the same thing. But just before his last conviction, Washington in 1993 became the first state to pass a law requiring criminals with three serious felony convictions to spend the rest of their lives in prison. California followed suit the next year, and 24 other states now have similar laws.

NEW YORK -- The former chief financial officer for Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty today to conspiracy, admitting to helping Madoff carry out a massive fraud that cost thousands of people billions of dollars by lying to investors and testifying falsely when it seemed the fraud might be discovered. "I was loyal to him. I ended up being loyal to a terrible, terrible fault," Frank DiPascali said as he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to charges including securities fraud, falsifying records and international money laundering.

An Orange County man who posed as a successful sporting goods entrepreneur has been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison after admitting to a complex fraud that prosecutors said cost more than 2,000 investors $55 million. Before his arrest in 2005, Colin Nathanson was president of Giant Golf Co., also known as Play Big Enterprises Inc., which marketed golf clubs and accessories. He pleaded guilty last year to mail fraud and was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in Santa Ana. In admissions to the court, Nathanson acknowledged that he misled investors in his Nathanson Investment Trust into thinking they were buying ownership in a privately held Internet-based company.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass on Monday removed plans to create a commission to reevaluate California's sentencing laws from a package intended to cut spending on state prisons, saying she expected to win approval for the revised proposal later this week. It was unclear whether Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) -- senators ratified a $525-million package of spending reductions Thursday -- would go along with the Assembly's limited version. The sentencing review is one of Steinberg's priorities, and his house would have to approve the Assembly's changes before the legislation could go to the governor.

Singer Chris Brown was involved in two unreported incidents "related to domestic violence" before the February encounter that left his pop star girlfriend Rihanna bruised and bleeding, a probation officer's report filed with the court Tuesday alleged. The first incident allegedly occurred about three months earlier, in Europe, when Brown and Rihanna were in a "verbal dispute," according to the report, which cited detectives investigating the case. She slapped him and Brown responded by shoving her into a wall, the report alleged.

Celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander was sentenced to 59 years to life in prison Monday afternoon for sexually assaulting seven young women and girls he enticed with the promise of modeling jobs. Alexander, acting as his own attorney, presented a lengthy argument asking for a new trial because of juror and prosecutorial misconduct. He also alleged inadequate defense by his former attorneys. Judge David Wesley denied the request. Alexander stared ahead blankly as Wesley handed down the sentence.

A federal judge Tuesday sentenced Silicon Valley financier William "Boots" Del Biaggio III to more than eight years in prison for bilking investors and banks -- including one he helped launch -- out of millions of dollars in a desperate attempt to buy a pro hockey team. The disgraced scion of a prominent San Jose family is to report to prison in January, capping a long fall for a former high roller who counted hockey great Mario Lemieux as a golfing buddy and who jetted on private planes to Las Vegas, where he amassed a $4-million gambling debt.