MARIETTA, Ga. — The “Barbie bandits” who went on a shopping spree after they were videotaped wearing sunglasses and laughing during an $11,000 bank heist were sentenced Monday, one to jail and another to probation.
Ashley Miller, 19, will have to serve two years of a 10-year sentence and must complete the rest on probation. She pleaded guilty to theft and drug charges.
Heather Johnston, also 19, was sentenced to 10 years’ probation for her role in the February 2007 heist in Acworth.
The two were caught on tape as they appeared to rob a Bank of America branch in a supermarket. They admitted plotting the heist with a teller and later going on a shopping binge.
Colorado: Airline pilot’s gun fires
A gun belonging to the pilot of a US Airways plane went off as the aircraft was on approach to land in North Carolina over the weekend, the first time a weapon issued under a federal program to arm pilots was fired, authorities said Monday. The accidental discharge Saturday aboard Flight 1536 from Denver to Charlotte did not endanger the aircraft or the 129 people aboard, said Greg Alter of the Federal Air Marshal Service. Officials did not say where the bullet hit.
Michigan: Kevorkian a candidate for Congress
Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist and assisted-suicide advocate who served eight years in prison for second-degree murder, announced Monday he’s running for Congress as an independent. Kevorkian, 79, is challenging a Republican incumbent for a district in suburban Detroit. If elected, he said his main priority will be promoting the Ninth Amendment, which protects rights not explicitly specified elsewhere in the U.S. Constitution. Kevorkian said he interprets it as protecting a person’s choice to die through assisted suicide or to avoid wearing a seat belt.
Detroit mayor’s affair denial brings charges
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with perjury and other offenses Monday after a trove of raunchy text messages contradicted his sworn denials of an affair with his chief aide. Kilpatrick, 37, could get up to 15 years in prison for perjury alone and would be automatically expelled from office if convicted.
N.Y.: Pepper spray prank goes bad
Wal-Mart has suspended an employee after he and another employee allegedly sprayed each other with pepper spray Saturday night, causing 16 shoppers to become ill, according to store officials and police. According to police, two employees at the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, Long Island, found an open can of pepper spray and began to spray each other. The spray spread through store’s ventilation system. Sixteen customers were given medical aid at the scene.
Afghanistan: Aid dollars short, group says
The United States has not delivered $5 billion worth of aid it pledged to help rebuild Afghanistan, and other donors have fallen short by about that same amount, a report from humanitarian groups said today. Since 2001, the international community has pledged $25 billion in help but has delivered only $15 billion, said the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, an alliance of 94 international aid agencies. “The U.S. government is on track to provide the aid to Afghanistan that it pledged,” said Jim Kunder, acting deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Nepal: 475 Tibetan protesters held
Police in Nepal’s capital arrested about 475 Tibetan refugees, monks and their supporters in Katmandu on Monday as they gathered to protest a crackdown on Tibetans in neighboring China, the U.N. said.
Mexico: Confession in ‘evil eye’ killing
Two men have confessed to brutally killing a man near Cancun on Saturday who made his living practicing witchcraft because they believed he had put an “evil eye” on one of the men’s father, leading to his suicide, officials said Monday. The two men, and a third who remained at large, stabbed 28-year-old Lucas Dominguez seven times, crushed his skull with a rock and tried to burn his body, according to an assistant prosecutor for Quintana Roo state.
Philippines: Aquino has cancer
Roman Catholic bishops and political leaders across the Philippines offered prayers today for former president and democracy icon Corazon Aquino after her family announced she was battling colon cancer. The 75-year-old Aquino has started treatment, but no details were available.
From Herald news services
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