(AP) — Recent cases in Montana and Minnesota have taken the “stand your ground” debate to a new level.

Markus Kaarma of Missoula, Montana, is accused of setting a trap and blindly shooting into his garage, killing a 17-year-old exchange student.

Byron Smith of Little Falls, Minnesota, was convicted Tuesday of lying in wait in his basement for two teenagers and killing them during a break-in.

Both homeowners say they had been burglarized and said they were afraid of it happening again. Prosecutors say they lured intruders into fatal encounters.

That raises the question: Do laws that allow citizens to protect their property also let them set a trap?

David LaBahn of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys says individuals should be held accountable when they step outside the bounds of society.

(AP)–A county spokeswoman says two inmates have been killed in an apparent gas explosion at the jail in Pensacola, Florida, and more than 100 others were injured.

Kathleen Castro, the county’s public information manager, says the explosion happened around 11 p.m. CDT Wednesday in a booking area at the Escambia County jail. The blast also injured 100 to 150 inmates and corrections officers and caused the building to partially collapse.

She says about 600 inmates were in the building at the time.

Castro said she didn’t know if flooding in the area was a factor but says the jail did get extensive flooding during heavy rains that drenched the region Tuesday and Wednesday.

(AP) — New York state police say the deaths of a couple standing together in front of a freight train was a murder-suicide, but investigators can’t say when Earl Myatt Jr. decided to drive his beloved wife of 42 years to the railroad crossing.

Relatives have said Myatt became despondent after his wife, Mary, suffered a brain aneurism in January that left her with the mental capacity of a toddler.

Troopers said Earl Myatt called one of his sons and apologized two minutes before stepping with his wife onto tracks into the path of an oncoming CSX Railroad freight train on Sunday.

Police said video showed them waiting on the tracks before they were hit and killed. A suicide note was found in Myatt’s car.

(AP) — At least 37 deaths have been reported from a large, stubborn storm system making its way through the South after pummeling the central U.S.

On Wednesday, officials in Georgia reported one death in Athens. Police say winds pushed over a tree that crashed into a car, killing its driver at a mobile home park.

In Florida, with severe flooding in the Panhandle, the Highway Patrol said Wednesday that a woman who drove her car into high water died.

Those deaths brought the total from four days of storms to 37.

Mississippi and Arkansas saw the most fatalities, as well as the most destruction from violent tornadoes.

Deaths also were reported in Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Iowa.

(AP) — Oklahoma prison officials halted an inmate’s execution after a new drug combination left him writhing and clenching his teeth on the gurney. He later died of a heart attack.

Thirty-eight-year-old Clayton Lockett was declared unconscious 10 minutes after the first of the three-drug combination was administered Tuesday. Three minutes later he began breathing heavily, writhing, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow.

The blinds were lowered to prevent those in the viewing gallery from watching. The state’s top prison official eventually halted the proceedings.

Lockett died of a heart attack a short time later.

Gov. Mary Fallin ordered a 14-day stay of execution for death row inmate Charles Warner, who was scheduled to die two hours after Lockett.

(AP) — An 89-year-old Indiana man who transported more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine across the country says he has dementia and should be kept out of prison.

Leo Sharp is returning to Detroit federal court on May 7 for his sentence — his 90th birthday.

Sharp pleaded guilty last fall. The Michigan State Police caught him in 2011 with more than 200 pounds of cocaine on Interstate 94, although it wasn’t the first haul for the Michigan City, Ind., man.

Secretly recorded conversations show drug dealers liked to call him the “old man.”

In a court filing Tuesday, Sharp’s attorney says putting him in prison would be an expensive burden for the government.

Darryl Goldberg says Sharp was a World War II hero who was awarded the Bronze Star.

(AP) — Sheriff’s officials say a 3-year-old Central California girl who was abducted from a car outside her home and found in a field about 12 hours later does not appear to have been harmed.

The girl was medically evaluated Monday after a detective spotted her running through a field less than a half-mile from her home in Huron.

Fresno County Sheriff’s Lt. Rick Ko says the girl appears to have been taken by a stranger, but there is no indication she was hurt.

The girl’s mother told police she left her daughter inside her car as she went into her home to get her wallet around 7:45 p.m. Sunday. When she returned a few minutes later, her daughter was gone.

Witnesses say they saw a male suspect leave the area on a bicycle with the child.

(AP) — A teenage student driver and his instructor out for a lesson on an Ohio road have been killed in a two-vehicle crash at an intersection.

An Ohio Highway Patrol preliminary investigation indicates 16-year-old Joseph Franks was driving a car in Waterville Township while Thomas Smith was instructing him Monday. It says they drove past a stop sign and were hit by a minivan.

Lt. Bill Bowers says the car flipped and ended up in a nearby house’s yard.

The student driver and the instructor died at the scene. The student was from Swanton. The instructor worked for Key Driving School Inc. and was from Whitehouse. The minivan driver was hospitalized. All three had been wearing their seat belts.

Driving school owner Bonnie Lech tells Toledo’s The Blade newspaper (http://bit.ly/1jactv4) her “heart cries out” for the victims.

(AP) — Police say at least six people are injured after a shooter opened fire at a FedEx center north of Atlanta.

Cobb County police spokesman Michael Bowman says an active shooter was reported early Tuesday at the FedEx package sorting facility in Kennesaw. He says police have surrounded the building and are working to clear it. He calls the situation “active and fluid.”

Marietta police spokesman David Baldwin says six injured patients were taken to nearby Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, one of them with potentially critical injuries. Police didn’t’ immediately say if anyone has died.

FedEx spokesman Scott Fiedler says the company is cooperating with authorities.

(AP) — Authorities are ending the active search for bodies more than five weeks after the Washington state mudslide.

Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary said Monday that it was a difficult decision because two people are still missing. So far, 41 victims have been recovered. He said 11 people were saved the day of the March 22 slide about an hour northeast of Seattle.

The painstaking search for the missing has involved hundreds of people and dogs who combed the debris field, at times digging with their hands.

County Executive John Lovick says a commission will independently review what happened before and after the slide.

Transportation officials say it could take up to three months to clear debris from the mile-long stretch of highway buried in the disaster.