FORT PLAIN, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say an upstate New York toddler’s death last year from drinking liquid nicotine was an accident.
The police investigation into Eli James Hotaling’s death has been closed. The newspaper says it was the first case of a child dying after accidentally swallowing the toxic ingredient used to refill electronic cigarettes, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Police say the boy was being watched last Dec. 9 by his mother and another adult at his family’s home in the Montgomery County village of Fort Plain. Police say the mother’s sister didn’t know the boy was going to be at the house that day and left an uncapped bottle of liquid nicotine on a low table.
Police say when the adults were busy looking for something, the boy drank the solution. He later was pronounced dead at Little Falls Hospital.
Authorities say he died from nicotine ingestion, which caused cardiac arrhythmia.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Two college students have been charged with sexually attacking a woman on a crowded Florida beach with bystanders who apparently did nothing.
The Bay County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that 22-year-old Delonte’ Martistee and 23-year-old Ryan Austin Calhoun were arrested and charged with sexual battery by multiple perpetrators over an attack that occurred sometime between March 10-12. It was unclear Saturday whether they had attorneys.
The attack went unreported even though it occurred around hundreds of witnesses during daylight.
Authorities learned of the attack when Troy, Alabama, police found a cellphone video of it while investigating a shooting.
Sheriff Frank McKeithen called the video the “most disgusting, sickening thing” he has ever seen. He said he expected more arrests.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A large tornado has touched down near the central Illinois community of Rochelle, and authorities say initial reports indicate it has caused significant damage.
A sheriff’s dispatcher who declined to give her name due to department policy said there was widespread damage but no immediate reports of injuries when a tornado swept across the town of Hillcrest, about 80 miles west of Chicago.
Winnebago County Sheriff’s spokesman Ken DeCoster says funnel clouds also were spotted near Rockford, but did not touch down. However, television footage showed multiple homes damaged in the incorporated community of Fairdale.
Tornadoes were reported earlier Thursday near Peoria, and Dewitt, Iowa, but no damage was reported.
The strong storm front affecting the Midwest and Plains was moving east Thursday night.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says a bystander’s video of the fatal shooting of a black man by a white South Carolina police officer shows how body cameras worn by police officers could help build trust between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.
Spokesman Josh Earnest says the video evidence led investigators to change how they were looking at the case.
Police initially promised a full investigation into Saturday’s shooting by the officer, Michael Thomas Slager.
Slager had said he shot Scott in self-defense, but the bystander recorded him firing eight shots at the back of Walter Lamer Scott as he runs away.
Slager was fired from the force Wednesday. He also faces 30 years to life if convicted.
Earnest also says the video is “awfully hard to watch.”
*WARNING: Video contains graphic footage and language. Viewer discretion is advised*
BOSTON –Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been found guilty of multiple charges in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing.
Tsarnaev, 21, was first found guilty of count one: conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, resulting in the deaths of Krystal Campbell, Lingzi Lu, Martin Richard and MIT campus officer Sean Collier. That guilty verdict alone makes Tsarnaev eligible for the death penalty.
The verdicts were returned after over 11 hours of deliberations over two days. Tsarnaev faced 30 charges in all.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys made their closing arguments Monday, and the jury began deliberating Tsarnaev’s guilt or innocence beginning Tuesday morning.
Twin blasts near the finish line of the April 2013 marathon killed three people, including eight-year-old Martin Richard, and injured some 260 others.
“The defendant brought terrorism to backyards and main streets,” prosecutor Aloke Chakravarty told the court, arguing that Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, “felt they were soldiers” who were “bringing their battle to Boston.”
Meanwhile, defense attorney Judy Clark said that although there was no denying her client had “fully participated,” she maintained that “if not for Tamerlan it wouldn’t have happened.”
Tsarnaev stands accused of 30 counts related to the bombing as well as the murder of a police officer days after the blasts. Although Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty, his attorney admitted from the start that the 21-year-old suspect and Tamerlan were responsible for the death and destruction. However, the defense argued that Dzhokhar was only acting under the influence of Tamerlan, whom they painted as the violent extremist.
A later sentencing hearing by the same jury could hand down capital punishment in any of the convictions that are eligible for the death penalty.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An HIV-positive Ohio man accused of sexually assaulting three girls has pleaded not guilty to 19 counts in court, where a prosecutor said one of them, a 12 year old, is pregnant.
Twenty-seven-year-old Keith Anthony Allen of Columbus pleaded not guilty Monday to charges including rape, felonious assault and gross sexual imposition. He remains jailed with no bond, and court records listed no attorney for him.
Allen is accused of raping two 12-year-old girls since September and fondling a third girl. The assault charges allege he raped the girls while knowing he was HIV-positive and had consensual sex with a woman without telling her he has the virus that causes AIDS.
Prosecutors say Allen could face a life sentence if he is convicted of having sex with a child under 13.
ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. (AP) — Prosecutors say a 100-year-old man apparently killed his wife with an ax as she slept in their northern New Jersey home, then killed himself in the bathroom with a knife.
But it’s still not clear what sparked the murder-suicide late Sunday in Elmwood Park.
Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli says there was a “history of domestic issues” between Michael Juskin and his 88-year-old wife, Rosalia. But he said a motive for the attack remains under investigation.
Police officers found the couple in their Spruce Street home after relative — who was not in the home — called authorities. The deaths were made public Monday.
Authorities do not believe anyone else was in the home when the attack occurred.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Police say an Albuquerque man opened fire at a customer he argued with at a gas station and then used his 13-year-old son as a getaway driver.
No one was injured, and Sergio Barrientos-Hinojosa was arrested late Saturday. Police say an inebriated Barrientos-Hinojosa had his 13-year-old son take him to buy beer at the gas station, where he got into an argument and started shooting at another customer.
Investigators say the father ordered his son to drive away while he fired his gun in the air.
Police pulled over the car not too far from the gas station.
Barrientos-Hinojosa is facing charges including child abuse. It wasn’t known if he had an attorney.
RAHWAY, N.J. (AP) — Authorities say several people were injured when the roof of a northern New Jersey church collapsed during an Easter Sunday service.
Congregants were reportedly singing at the Korean Union United Methodist Church in Rahway when they heard a cracking sound from above and debris began falling down on them.
One person was seriously injured; about a dozen others had minor injuries. The injured people reportedly were members of a separate congregation that rents out space at the church. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening.
It’s not yet known what caused the collapse Sunday afternoon. Everyone was able to quickly exit the church.
