In the News
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A previously unknown Palestinian group released the first video Wednesday of two kidnapped Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men. In the video, correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig appeared to be in good health.
WORLD
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A previously unknown Palestinian group released the first video Wednesday of two kidnapped Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men. In the video, correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig appeared to be in good health.
LONDON – On Wednesday British authorities extended the time nine suspects in the alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound commercial flights can be kept in custody without charges filed against them. Another suspect was expected to face a custody hearing Thursday, while an 11th person was released without charge.
Police said the suspects who have not been charged could be kept in custody until Aug. 30, giving police more time to quiz them about the plot they said involved liquid-based explosives.
NATIONAL
LOS ANGELES – John Mark Karr faces counts of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping and sexual assault of a child. He remained in a Los Angeles jail Wednesday afternoon awaiting transfer to Colorado, where JonBenet Ramsey was killed in her Boulder home in December 1996.
Karr told reporters in Thailand last week that he was present when JonBenet died and that her death was an accident. He did not specifically say he killed her, and Boulder prosecutors have not disclosed their evidence against him.
Karr’s family has insisted he was in Alabama during the Christmas week that JonBenet was killed.
Karr agreed Tuesday not to fight extradition to Colorado. In a court appearance, his expression changed only once when he slowly closed his eyes as the judge recited the count of first-degree murder that Boulder prosecutors included in his arrest warrant.
Karr “has been portrayed by the media as of late as being mentally unstable, attention-seeking, unwell, mentally unwell. And he is none of those things,” attorney Jamie Harmon said.
LOCAL
RICHMOND, Va. – In the end, it all came down to the children. Four-year-old Ruby Harvey and her 9-year-old sister Stella suffered torture. They were bound, stabbed, beaten with a claw hammer, their throats cut and their bodies set ablaze.
And for that, a jury decided Tuesday, Ricky Jovan Gray deserves nothing less than death.
Gray, 29, was convicted last week of capital murder in the random New Year’s Day slayings of the girls and their parents, musician Bryan Harvey, 49, and his wife, Kathryn, 39.
Gray slaughtered the family to steal a computer, a wedding ring and a basket of cookies during a bloody crime spree that left four others dead and another man maimed.
The jury recommended death for killing the girls and life sentences for three other capital murder convictions related to the killing of Bryan Harvey and the family as a whole.
The jury’s decision took 12 1/2 hours of deliberation over two days; formal sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 23.
The trial left most in the courtroom looking drained. And the judge herself fought back tears as she addressed the jury after receiving their decision.
“I know this has probably been the most difficult thing you’ve ever done,” Circuit Judge Beverly Snukals told the jurors, her voice choked with emotion.
