CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – A Marine private who pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the killing of an Iraqi civilian was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in custody. “You have a very fortuitous pretrial agreement,” the judge told Pfc. John Jodka. Jodka was part of a squad of seven Marines and a Navy corpsman accused of kidnapping 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the town of Hamdania, taking him to a roadside hole, shooting him and then trying to cover up the incident. The military judge wanted to hand down a five-year punishment, but was bound by the terms of the plea deal.
11 years for beating homeless man
A 21-year-old Inglewood man who beat a sleeping homeless man with a baseball bat was sentenced to 11 years in prison Wednesday, as his victim expressed compassion for his attacker. Ernest Adams, 56, a long scar and scalp depression left by the attack visible through his black hair, told the court, “I do not have revenge in my heart” for Justin Edward Brumfield, who police said admitted to committing the crime after watching a “Bumfight” video depicting homeless men brawling.
Florida: New ban on fishing
The largest marine reserve in North America is emerging on Florida’s southwest coast. Gov. Jeb Bush and his Cabinet voted 3-1 on Tuesday to approve a management plan banning fishing in a 61-square-mile section of Dry Tortugas National Park about 75 miles west of Key West. The new Research Natural Area will be added to the existing Tortugas Ecological Reserve, where fishing has been prohibited since 2001. Combined, the two areas will prohibit fishing in 261 square miles. The plan is designed to help overfished species such as grouper and red snapper recover.
Pennsylvania: Amish girls’ injuries
One of the five Amish girls who survived last month’s schoolhouse massacre is fully disabled from a severe head wound and unlikely to recover, and the other four probably have permanent disabilities, a physician familiar with their medical treatment said Wednesday. “They’re kids who are pretty damaged and will have long-term consequences for these wounds,” said the pediatrician and director of the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg.
North Carolina: Airliner-sex charges
A man arrested for allegedly engaging in “overt sexual activity” with his girlfriend on an airliner was lying with his head on her lap because he wasn’t feeling well, his attorney said in Raleigh. That gesture was misinterpreted by a flight attendant, who humiliated and harassed the couple, the attorney said. Carl Persing and Dawn Sewell, both of Lakewood, Calif., face federal charges of interfering with flight crew members, allegedly by disobeying a flight attendant’s request that they stop their public displays of affection.
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