2009-11-20 08:08:00
CINDY STAUFFER
The Lancaster County Prison Board heard a proposal Thursday for a $24.5 million work-release facility that would house almost 400 prisoners.The purpose of the facility, it was told, would be to house and train eligible prisoners who would work in community jobs.Those jobs would prov......
2009-11-20 00:02:00
JANET KELLEY
A Manor Township man — in jail, police said, for assaulting his girlfriend — has been charged with setting fire to the same woman's home a year ago.Jason D. Malles, 28, of Stonecreek Road, was charged this week with arson and risking a catastrophe for allegedly setting fire......
2009-11-20 00:01:00
JANET KELLEY
Calling the crime "despicable," a Lancaster County judge sentenced a city man to eight to 20 years in prison Thursday for raping a child.Todd James Gilbert, now 22, told Judge Dennis Reinaker that he — the judge — didn't know all the facts of the case."You were 19 and sh......
2009-11-17 00:01:00
JENNIFER TODD
The death of a Bainbridge man after a bar fight has been ruled a homicide, Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said Monday.An autopsy Monday showed that Charles Martin, 47, died of traumatic brain injury, Diamantoni said.Because police are still investigating the inciden......
2009-11-16 20:23:00
STAFF REPORT
A city man told a Lancaster County jury that he was trying to break up a fight, not start one.And the jurors apparently agreed, acquitting Keenan Emil Woods last week of riot, failure to disperse, hindering apprehension and obstructing the administration of justice.Woods, 20, of Eas......
2009-11-14 00:02:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
A fight in a local tavern has left a 47-year-old man hospitalized.Charles Martin Jr. is at the Hershey Medical Center following a fight that broke out at around 11 p.m. Thursday in the Bainbridge Inn. Martin, of Bainbridge, is listed in critical condition, according to a hospital spokeswom......
2009-11-14 00:01:00
JANET KELLEY
It all came down to one thing:Did the McCaskey Gospel Choir director know the student with whom he was having sex was only 15 years old?Norman M. McMillan III said he didn't know. The student said he did.A Lancaster County jury sided with the student and convicted McMillan of......
2009-11-13 00:03:00
JANET KELLEY
He was living in his car after he got out of prison.But every day, the defense attorney said, Richard Wanamaker would walk to his mother's house for a shower, and he used her address when he applied for work.Sometimes he'd sleep in a tent in her backyard.But as a conv......
2009-11-13 00:02:00
JANET KELLEY
"I wasn't the type of girl that got a lot of attention from guys," the teenager told a Lancaster County jury on Thursday.So when the former director of McCaskey Gospel Choir started paying attention to her, she admitted, "I got a little flattered."By the foll......
2009-11-13 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
An official canvass of the Nov. 3 election results Thursday confirmed Democrat Ben Bamford as the winner — by a razor-thin 11-vote margin — over longtime Republican Lancaster Township Supervisor Tony Allen.Elections workers did find four previo......
2009-11-11 00:02:00
Staff
The former director of McCaskey Gospel Choir will stand trial Thursday on charges he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.On Tuesday, a judge ruled that a recorded telephone conversation between Norman Micah McMillan III, 27, of Lancaster, and the teenager could be used as ......
2009-11-07 00:11:00
JANET KELLEY
The drug dealer was out of prison just a few years when he was arrested again on new charges.And the message from the Lancaster County judge to 32-year-old Kelvin Monsanto was very clear:One more arrest and he'll be spending the rest of his life in state prison.As it is, ......
2009-11-07 00:08:00
JANET KELLEY
The young Columbia man was told Friday that at some point he will be able to walk out of prison and get on with his life.But his son "will never be able to walk away from this situation," a Lancaster County judge said.In fact, the child — who Brandon Scott Brooks admitted assa......
2009-10-31 00:09:00
JANET KELLEY
Three years ago today, a veteran city policeman walked into the basement of a St. Joseph Street home.What he saw, city police Detective Chris DePatto told a Lancaster County judge on Friday, "was something I've never seen before — and that says a lot."Seven peopl......
2009-10-30 00:08:00
JANET KELLEY
The lawyer for convicted killer Michael Roseboro has responded to a prosecutor's claims that comments posted by a juror on Facebook were "innocuous."The posts, defense attorney Allan Sodomsky contends in a new court filing, "show a juror inclined to convict, bored and an......
2009-10-30 00:03:00
JANET KELLEY
Jose Montanez cried as he confessed to the detective his part in a city shooting in August.Montanez, 24, of North Plum Street, said he'd gone to an East Orange Street apartment with his friend, who was upset with Anthony C. Swaydis.He told police he fired one gunshot at Swaydis,......
2009-10-28 00:07:00
JANET KELLEY
After George L. Clayton Jr. forged a customer's signature to steal money, the young bank manager knew he had done something terribly wrong.But he did it again to cover up the first theft, his lawyer said, and then again to cover up the second theft.The total amount of forged loa......
2009-10-27 00:02:00
JANET KELLEY
It wasn't unusual for his older brother to call him names or initiate a fight, the city man told police.So when Osvaldo Torres started yelling, punching and trying to cut him with a knife Aug. 23, Enrique Torres-Torres said, he wasn't surprised, but fought back."He was always trying......
2009-10-21 00:11:00
JANET KELLEY
It was an unusual reaction to a state prison sentence, the Lancaster County judge admitted Tuesday.After being sentenced to 5˝ to 15 years in prison for robbery, the young city man asked his lawyer to give the judge a message:"Thank you."Edward William Kempto......
2009-10-14 00:03:00
TOM MURSE
Prosecutors maintained Tuesday that convicted killer Michael Roseboro should neither be acquitted nor get a new trial, saying comments posted on Facebook by two jurors were merely "innocuous."" … It is certainly permissible and expected that jurors tell others that th......
2009-10-13 18:09:00
TOM MURSE
Prosecutors maintained Tuesday that convicted killer Michael Roseboro should neither be acquitted nor get a new trial, saying comments posted on Facebook by two jurors were "innocuous."" … It is certainly permissible and expected that jurors tell others that they have......
2009-10-07 07:24:00
JANET KELLEY
An 18-year-old Ephrata man, charged with leaving a shotgun within reach of his little brother, will stand trial on a charge of reckless endangerment.Randall N. Hoover's 6-year-old brother used the gun to shoot and kill another child. Hoover waived his right to a preliminary hearing Tue......
2009-10-07 07:08:00
JENNIFER TODD
Police have charged a Virginia woman in connection with a July 22 traffic accident which resulted in the death of another driver.West Earl Township police said Barbara B. Carper, 57, of Milford, is charged with a felony count of accidents involving death or personal injury while not proper......
2009-10-07 00:03:00
CINDY STAUFFER
The 15-year-old boy said the retired minister tried to kiss him on the lips, touched his thigh and told him he was a "touchy-feely" type of guy and a bisexual, according to police.Those are the allegations made in the latest round of charges against Dennis Spangler, 64, of Manhei......
2009-10-06 00:03:00
JANET KELLEY
Michael Roseboro wants a new trial.Or, his attorneys asked a Lancaster County judge on Monday, acquit him of murder.At the very least, Roseboro's attorneys want two members of the jury brought back into court to see if they were influenced by others, specifically their "Fac......
2009-10-05 18:22:00
JANET KELLEY
Michael Roseboro's attorneys filed a request in Lancaster County Court today, asking for a new trial.At the very least, Roseboro's attorneys want two members of the jury brought back into court to see if they were influenced by others — specifically their "Facebook Frien......
2009-10-03 00:02:00
STAFF REPORT
Lancaster police are continuing to investigate the case of a missing city woman, according to a news release Friday.Lydia Colon-Torres, 33, was last seen by family members on Sept. 25 at her 324 Beaver St. residence.City police also are working with Manor Township police, the Lancas......
2009-09-26 00:17:00
JANET KELLEY
Michael Roseboro had opportunities most people "can only dream of." He had a good career with his family's successful funeral home business. His wife, Jan, was loved by friends and family, and they had four healthy children. He had a nice home in Reinholds and could affo......
2009-09-25 00:20:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Michael Roseboro is scheduled to be sentenced today for the murder of his wife, Jan. The former funeral director, convicted in July of first-degree murder for killing his wife at the couple's Reinhold's home, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Prosecuto......
2009-09-19 00:20:00
JANET KELLEY
A Lancaster County judge said when he thinks about Ray Diener's murder, he'll always wonder, "What if?" "I will always wonder," Judge Joseph Madenspacher asked Emru Kebede on Friday, "if you refused to go along that day, what would have happened?" &......
2009-09-12 00:06:00
CINDY STAUFFER
When a retired minister was charged last week with indecent assault on a teenage boy at Lancaster Airport, it wasn't the first time police had heard about such alleged conduct.A source who asked not to be identified said that someone called Manheim Township police several years ago wit......
2009-09-12 00:03:00
JANET KELLEY
A former county man was convicted Thursday in Lancaster County Court of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a young girl.Dwayne A. Goudy, 45, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was charged by police in four jurisdictions with attacking the girl over an eight-year period, beginning when she was 10 ye......
2009-09-11 00:04:00
JANET KELLEY
Ray Diener's wife and children clutched hands and held their breath as the jurors filed into a Lancaster County courtroom Thursday afternoon.They didn't exhale until the jury's verdict was announced, declaring Emru Kebede guilty of second-degree murder in the death of the 65-ye......
2009-09-10 13:11:00
JANET KELLEY
A Lancaster County jury is expected to begin deliberations today in the case of a teenager charged in the murder of Ray Diener. Emru Kebede, now 18, of Mount Joy, one of four young men charged with the May 2007 killing, had indicated earlier that he wanted to testify in his own defese.......
2009-09-10 00:04:00
JANET KELLEY
A color photograph of Ray Diener's dead body, covered with a white sheet, was flashed on a large screen in the corner of the Lancaster County courtroom Wednesday.A state trooper held up one of the bullets taken from the 65-year-old Elizabethtown area man's body and showed the jury ......
2009-09-09 05:10:00
TOM MURSE
The shooting death of a 5-year-old, which occurred Saturday afternoon on a farm in Earl Township, has been ruled a homicide.Andrew Hoover died of a single gunshot wound to the head, Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen G. Diamantoni said.New Holland Police Department said a 6-year-o......
2009-09-09 13:28:00
JANET KELLEY
A color photograph of Ray Diener's body, covered in a white sheet, was flashed onto a screen in a Lancaster County courtroom this morning. Diener, 65, was shot and killed on the doorstep of his West Donegal Township home during a random robbery in May 2007. Today, police told the ju......
2009-09-09 00:01:00
JANET KELLEY
The teenager told police that he and his friends drove around looking for the perfect victim.Then they spotted 65-year-old Ray Diener inside his rural West Donegal Township home.The plan was to knock on the door, push their way inside and rob the homeowner.But things went ter......
2009-09-08 13:50:00
JANET KELLEY
Barbara Diener told a Lancaster County jury this morning, how she was awakened on the night of May 2, 2007, by something she never heard before. "I heard my husband scream," Mrs. Diener testified. No words, she said, just a loud noise, "like pain." Mrs. Di......
2009-09-04 08:21:00
JANET KELLEY
An East Hempfield Township man was sentenced Thursday to 5 to 10 years in prison for raping a child.But before Paul Antwan Brooks, 23, was led from the Lancaster County courtroom, his mother had some final words for him."I want nothing to do with you for the rest of my life,&qu......
2009-09-04 00:04:00
JANET KELLEY
Lancaster County jurors received quick lessons in Pennsylvania law on Thursday.Juveniles charged with criminal homicide are treated as adults, attorneys explained.In the case they are being asked to decide, Emru Kebede, now 18, of Mount Joy, was 16 years old when he was charged with......
2009-08-26 08:27:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Eric L. Singley got another chance at his sentencing, but it wasn't just his second chance — more like his "15th or 16th."Singley, 32, a former Denver resident who has been in and out of prison most of his adult life, was sentenced Tuesday to 15 to 40 years in prison fo......
2009-08-18 09:02:00
JANET KELLEY
Once again, the family of Ray Diener will have to listen to the gruesome details surrounding the death of the 65-year-old husband, father and grandfather.Once again, a Lancaster County jury will have to decide the fate of one of four young men charged with robbing and shooting the man on t......
2009-08-16 00:04:00
MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT
The snapshots of anonymous faces navigating city streets are at once mundane and riveting.A man slowly enters a crosswalk, leaning on a cane. A woman hauls groceries and a toddler from her car. A taxi careens through a narrow alley.Today, like any other day, thousands of residents a......
2009-08-14 08:13:00
JANET KELLEY
A young Christiana man will stand trial on charges that he had dozens of images of child pornography on his home computer.James Walter Crellin, 22, of East Slocum Avenue, was ordered to trial on one count of disseminating child pornography after a preliminary hearing Thursday.Prior ......
2009-08-12 08:26:00
JANET KELLEY
A Kinzers man hugged his best friend's father in Lancaster County Court on Tuesday, apologizing for the traffic accident that killed his friend.Thomas Sensenig, 25, pleaded guilty to a charge of homicide by vehicle stemming from the crash in January. The accident resulted in the death ......
2009-08-08 08:42:00
JANET KELLEY
"He was my best friend," Richard Prokay told a Lancaster County judge Friday.But early in the morning of Dec. 4, 2007, Prokay was driving his friends home when he missed a curve in the road and crashed into a stone wall.His best friend was killed instantly, the judge was t......
2009-08-08 00:06:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
A Columbia man has been arrested in connection with a barn fire that killed more than 80 head of cattle last year.Derrick E. Getz, 18, of 4852 Marietta Ave., Columbia, was arrested Friday by Susquehanna Regional Police. He was charged with ecoterrorism, two counts of arson, causing or risk......
2009-08-08 00:03:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A man fleeing from Lancaster County Drug Task Force detectives struck two of them with his vehicle Thursday in East Hempfield Township, District Attorney Craig Stedman said in a press release.Drug Task Force Detective John Ator said the two who were struck were not seriously hurt in the 6 ......
2009-08-07 08:26:00
TOM MURSE
Judges in Lancaster County have dealt with their fair share of jurors — and even potential jurors — who didn't follow their instructions to the "T."And their handling of those cases could shed light on how — or even whether — Judge James P. Cullen deal......
2009-08-06 00:12:00
P.J. REILLY
Lancaster County commissioners plan to build a new county morgue and crime laboratory on Spring Valley Road in East Hempfield Township.They announced Wednesday they hope to begin constructing the "forensic center" next year on a two-acre tract owned by Lancaster General Health as......
2009-08-05 00:03:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
York prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a 19-year-old man accused of shooting a 9-year-old Lancaster girl in the back, killing her.Chuck Patterson, chief deputy prosecutor for the York County District Attorney's Office, filed notice Tuesday that he will seek the ultimate p......
2009-08-04 07:26:00
TOM MURSE
Nick Keene and Michael Hecker clearly didn't enjoy their time as jurors in the Michael Roseboro murder trial.The two young men complained to friends on Facebook about being picked for the jury and the length of the trial — despite instructions from the judge not to talk to anyone......
2009-08-04 00:04:00
RYAN ROBINSON
A Columbia man who said he caught a man stealing from his vehicle and allegedly struck him in the face with a baseball bat now finds himself in more trouble than the alleged thief.West Hempfield Township police charged Joshua Heisey, 26, whose van was allegedly broken into, with aggravated......
2009-08-02 00:21:00
PAUL FRANZ
A picture of Jan Roseboro sits on Craig Stedman's desk at home. "I owed it to her as if she was part of my own family," the Lancaster County District Attorney said. "I never knew Jan, but it gave me the energy. Jan Roseboro didn't deserve to die like this." I......
2009-08-02 00:20:00
PAUL FRANZ
Michael Roseboro is on suicide watch at Lancaster County Prison. According to an online database provided by the prison, Roseboro is in the facility's "medical housing unit" for observation. Warden Vincent Guarini confirmed that Roseboro was moved to the unit Friday, but c......
2009-08-01 10:00:00
STAFF
Listen to the recordings of Michael Roseboro's 911 call on the night his wife, Jan Roseboro, was killed and the phone calls he made to Angela Funk from prison on April 14 and April 16, 2009.......
2009-08-01 15:58:00
BLAINE T. SHAHAN
......
2009-07-31 00:04:00
JANET KELLEY
Michael Roseboro closed his eyes, swallowed hard and dropped his head slightly.His mother, Ann, cradled in her husband's arms, broke into sobs in the back of the courtroom.Jurors, dry-eyed and grim-faced, glanced around at the people packed into the Lancaster County courtroom on......
2009-07-31 07:03:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
To many of Michael Roseboro's neighbors in the Denver area — some of whom know him and his family — his conviction for murder in the first degree Thursday came as no surprise.Roseboro, who owns a generations-old funeral home in Denver, was found guilty Thursday in the July ......
2009-07-30 20:06:00
DAN MARSCHKA
......
2009-07-30 00:03:00
JANET KELLEY
Today it goes to the jurors.For more than two weeks, they've looked at pictures and clothing and listened to witnesses and recordings.On Wednesday, they listened to the two opposing attorneys give dramatic, emotional closing arguments. ...
2009-07-29 13:08:00
JANET KELLEY
"Michael Roseboro lied. And he cheated. But he only lied about cheating," his attorney told a Lancaster County jury today. Roseboro, 42, is guilty of adultery, but he is not guilty of killing his wife, defense attorney Allan Sodomsky said. In a two-hour closing argument this morn......
2009-07-29 00:09:00
JANET KELLEY
"I know my dad would not do that," Samuel Roseboro told a Lancaster County jury Tuesday. "He couldn't kill my mother."Jan and Michael Roseboro's 19-year-old son struggled to control his emotions as he remembered arriving home the night his mother died on July 22......
2009-07-28 13:30:00
JANET KELLEY
"I know my Dad would not do that," Samuel Roseboro testified today. "He couldn't kill my mother." Jan and Michael Roseboro's 19-year-old son testified that when he last saw his mother alive, she and his father were together by the pool. Hours later, Samuel Roseb......
2009-07-28 00:17:00
JANET KELLEY
"Drowning," a forensic pathologist told a Lancaster County jury on Monday, "is a good way to hide a murder."Jan Roseboro, 45, did drown in the swimming pool of her Reinholds home last summer, experts said, but before she died she was beaten and strangled.Two fore......
2009-07-26 00:21:00
SUZANNE CASSIDY
When Angela Funk testified last week about her extramarital affair with Michael Roseboro, every detail of her court appearance — her testimony, her reported demeanor, even the outfit she wore on the stand — was dissected by Lancaster County residents. Her paramour, Denver funeral di......
2009-07-26 00:18:00
PAUL FRANZ
There's a lot Angela Funk says she can't remember about her affair with Michael Roseboro. That's despite more than 1,400 phone calls, 1,000 text messages and 200 e-mails, which were sent during the course of an extramarital affair that lasted less than two months with Denver funeral......
2009-07-25 09:13:00
DAVID OCONNOR
Hoping to get a better price for a prime commercial site on Harrisburg Pike, East Hempfield Township officials have turned down a couple's offer to buy the property for use as their private home.The township supervisors voted July 15 to turn down the $325,000 offer for the former Sylva......
2009-07-25 00:12:00
JANET KELLEY
"This was a very up-close and personal attack," a county detective told a Lancaster County jury Friday.No knife, no gun, the detective noted.But there was a victim, Jan Roseboro, who was strangled, beaten and drowned in the backyard swimming pool of her home in Reinholds....
2009-07-24 13:27:00
JANET KELLEY
"This was a very up close and personal attack," a county detective told a Lancaster County jury this morning in the trial of Michael Roseboro. The fact that Jan Roseboro, 45, was strangled, beaten and drown while sitting by her backyard pool in rural Reinholds, Detective Jan Walters s......
2009-07-24 00:53:00
JENNIFER TODD
Police have charged a 51-year-old man in the rape of a girl.Luis A. Galarza, of the 4000 block of Columbia Pike, allegedly abused the girl several times over the past three years, according to West Hempfield Township police.Most of the incidents occurred at Galarza's residence, ......
2009-07-24 00:51:00
JANET KELLEY
Jan and Michael Roseboro had lots of lights outside their newly remodeled home.There was a spotlight shining on the backyard area, an automatic dusk-to-dawn light on the garage, lights along the roof line of the house and lights inside the pool.And all of them, a Lancaster County ju......
2009-07-23 12:56:00
JANET KELLEY
Jan and Michael Roseboro had several lights outside their newly remodeled home. There was a spotlight shining on the backyard area, an automatic dusk-to-dawn light on the garage, lights along the roof line and lights inside the pool. And all of them, a Lancaster County jury was told tod......
2009-07-23 00:19:00
JANET KELLEY
Michael Roseboro's DNA was found underneath the fingernails of his dead wife's left hand, an expert said.His face, a family friend noticed, was "oozing blood" the night Jan Roseboro was killed.And that same night, a neighbor testified, the backyard of the Roseboro ......
2009-07-23 00:12:00
TOM MURSE
A former truck driver who caused a 2007 wreck that killed a mother and her daughter on Oregon Pike in Manheim Township expressed remorse in court Wednesday."I just wish it was me that got killed in an accident, not them," said Thomas A. Lamonda, 52, of New York, who was convicted......
2009-07-22 16:49:00
JANET KELLEY
A Reinholds woman told a Lancaster County jury today that she had almost a clear view of Jan and Michael Roseboro's backyard at 10 p.m. on July 22, 2008.And she saw nothing."There were no lights on," September Malamon, of Creek Road, testified. "It was pitch black......
2009-07-22 08:31:00
CIVIA KATZ
Penn Township supervisors released funds July 13 to Manheim Athletic Association after the nonprofit organization met state guidelines and paid a $1,000 fine.Supervisors agreed to donate $3,387.50 after learning MAA had conducted a financial review and also passed a preliminary criminal in......
2009-07-22 00:14:00
JANET KELLEY
Angela Funk has had "a change of heart" about Michael Roseboro."If he's guilty, he's guilty," she matter-of-factly told a Lancaster County jury. "If he's not, he's not."Prosecutors have charged Roseboro with killing his wife, Jan, exactl......
2009-07-21 12:45:00
JANET KELLEY
Angela Funk, who the prosecution contends was Michael Roseboro's motive for murder, took the witness stand in Lancaster County Court today. Between questions about her activities the day Roseboro's wife, Jan, was murdered, Funk glanced across the courtroom where her former lover sat ......
2009-07-21 08:01:00
BRIAN WALLACE
A Philadelphia man was sentenced Monday to 7 to 14 years in prison for participating in a robbery that a judge called "a homeowner's nightmare."Lancaster County President Judge Louis Farina imposed the sentence on Kyle L. Calamese, 27, for his role in a home-invasion robbery ......
2009-07-21 00:17:00
JANET KELLEY
As of three months ago, Michael Roseboro was still telling his girlfriend he loved her.And, Roseboro told Angela Funk in a phone call from jail, "I totally plan on being out of here in August."Monday, a Lancaster County jury listened to two recorded telephone calls Rosebor......
2009-07-21 00:11:00
TOM MURSE
A young mentally ill Columbia man who took a family hostage and claimed God had instructed him to kill someone apologized to his traumatized victims in court Monday."I am so sorry for what I did to you. I wish I could take away your fear. I don't want you to be afraid of me," 27-year-old N......
2009-07-20 12:43:00
JANET KELLEY
Bank surveillance photos aren't usually evidence in a homicide trial. But today in the Lancaster County Court trial of Michael Roseboro, a series of surveillance photographs were shown to the jury. The color photographs were taken of Jan Roseboro, when she went to the bank on the af......
2009-07-20 00:01:00
JANET KELLEY
Jan and Michael Roseboro's four children had no set bedtime and often stayed up late at night. Their youngest, Stella, 7, bites her fingernails. Their two large dogs greet guests to the backyard area and bark at strangers. Jan Roseboro did not wear much jewelry and rarely checked ......
2009-07-19 00:21:00
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ
Chas Kurtz graduated from Colgate University this past spring with a bachelor's in history and, like a lot graduates, he's not sure exactly what to do next. "I've thought about law school," said the 22-year-old Lancaster resident who has taken an internship with Magisteria......
2009-07-19 00:18:00
PAUL FRANZ
Angela Funk, Michael Roseboro's mistress and the mother of his youngest child, is expected to be the star witness this week in his murder trial, according to her attorney, Amy Rothermel, of Reading. "It'll probably be Tuesday," Rothermel said, but cautioned that the current pa......
2009-07-18 00:22:00
JANET KELLEY
For nearly two months, up until the very day Jan Roseboro was murdered, her husband, Michael, was professing his love to someone else. He wrote to his girlfriend about marriage, shopped for her wedding gown, selected a honeymoon spot and dreamed of a life together — with her. All tha......
2009-07-17 00:20:00
JANET KELLEY
It just lasted a second or two. Coming from her next-door neighbor's backyard pool. Shortly before 10:30 p.m. on July 22, 2008. A woman's scream. Of that, Cassandra Pope told a Lancaster County jury Thursday, she was absolutely certain. Knowing that her neighbors,......
2009-07-16 00:22:00
JANET KELLEY
They described him as calm and emotionless.As Jan Roseboro's grieving relatives gathered at the family's Reinholds home after her death last summer, Michael Roseboro, they said, was "quiet," "calm" and "complacent."When they then learned the 45-......
2009-07-15 00:11:00
JANET KELLEY
"My wife just drowned," Michael Roseboro told the 911 dispatcher."What happened?" the dispatcher asked.Michael Roseboro's voice, calm and flat, answered questions, telling the dispatcher he had gone outside and found his wife in the backyard pool.The r......
2009-07-15 00:09:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Nicholas Poneros is a good man, an honorable man, a kind man who became a father figure to a niece, a giving man who gave toys to needy children at Christmas, an upstanding man who tirelessly served his church and his community, according to his friends and family.He's also a man who s......
2009-07-15 00:01:00
STAFF REPORT
The Lancaster County Drug Task Force confiscated more than $12,000 worth of crack on Friday, according to a news release from District Attorney Craig Stedman's office.Shortly after 7 p.m., police arrested two men on drug charges in the parking lot of an East Lampeter Township shopping ......
2009-07-14 00:04:00
JANET KELLEY
Jan Roseboro lay by the backyard swimming pool as medics, kneeling beside her, tried to resuscitate her.Her husband, Michael Roseboro, who had pulled her from the pool and called 911, stood nearby, police said, smoking cigarettes and making phone calls to family members."This c......
2009-07-12 00:22:00
PAUL FRANZ
Michael Roseboro's mother held back tears as she watched her son through the narrow rectangular windows of the courtroom doors. As Roseboro was led to the defense table in handcuffs, Ann Roseboro waved at her son. Visibly distraught, she made eye contact with him and smiled. He nodded ......
2009-07-12 00:15:00
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ
The commonwealth has accused 42-year-old Michael Roseboro of murdering his wife, Jan Roseboro, at their Reinholds home last July. Recent newspaper accounts of the incident have often included Roseboro's mug shot, which shows a goateed man wearing a white T-shirt and a gold chain. The Roseb......
2009-07-11 00:01:00
JANET KELLEY
Attorneys finished final preparations Friday for Michael Roseboro's trial to get under way Monday morning in Lancaster County Court.The jury — eight women, four men, plus two female and two male alternate jurors — was selected by Friday morning.Defense and prosecutin......
2009-07-10 10:44:00
JANET KELLEY
Michael Roseboro's homicide trial is now scheduled to start Monday, as jury selection continues in Lancaster County Court.The last two alternate jurors were selected by mid-morning today. The jury consists of 8 women and four men plus two men and two women as alternates.Ros......
2009-07-08 12:34:00
JANET KELLEY
Eleven jurors have been selected so far to hear the case of Michael Roseboro, the Denver funeral home director who is charged with killing his wife.This morning in Lancaster County Court, the 11th juror, a Manheim Township woman, was selected to join the six other women and four men on the pa......
2009-07-07 12:26:00
STAFF
Six jurors have been selected so far to hear the case of Michael Roseboro, who is on trial for allegedly killing his wife.Roseboro, 42, a director of his family's funeral home in Denver, is charged in the death of his wife, Jan.The 45-year-old woman was found dead next to the po......
2009-07-07 00:27:00
JANET KELLEY
Michael Roseboro, handcuffed and dressed in a black suit, walked into a Lancaster County courtroom Monday to face trial for his wife's death.Roseboro, 42, a director of his family's funeral home in Denver, is charged with killing his wife, Jan, one year ago, in July 2008.On ......
2009-07-07 00:09:00
JANET KELLEY
A former school secretary was sentenced to 1 to 2 years in prison Monday for stealing more than $163,000 in students' tuition money to support her family.Michelle Hildebrand, weeping before she was sentenced Monday morning, told Judge Joseph Madenspacher she is working now and making a......
2009-07-02 00:26:00
JANET KELLEY
In shooting one man, John C. Coulson Jr. saved the life of another, the Lancaster judge was told.But Coulson, a 60-year-old Vietnam veteran, was not allowed to possess a gun, let alone shoot it.On Wednesday, Coulson was sentenced in Lancaster County Court to 5 to 10 years in state p......
2009-07-02 00:19:00
TOM MURSE
The decades-long effort to open a federal courthouse in Lancaster has taken perhaps its biggest step forward: President Barack Obama is allocating $27 million for the project in his budget proposal for 2010."This is the first time we've gotten this far," U.S. Sen. Arlen Spect......
2009-07-01 00:07:00
JANET KELLEY
The young man, shot several times inside a Manheim Township bar, told the Lancaster County judge he thinks about the incident every day.And the shooter, Colby Richard Dixon, told Judge Dennis Reinaker he prays for his victim, Keith Pitt Jr., all the time."Nobody deserves what h......
2009-06-30 00:26:00
JANET KELLEY
A city man was sentenced Monday to 6 to 23 months in county prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting a young girl.Benigno Ayala pleaded guilty in March in Lancaster County Court to one count each of indecent assault and corruption of minors.Before imposing sentence, Judge Howard F.......
2009-06-22 00:08:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Two feuding motorists brawled in an Ephrata Borough parking lot before one man pulled a knife and stabbed the other in the neck, investigators said.Ephrata police Chief William Harvey said a "road rage" incident on South State Street led to the stabbing at Brights Family Restaura......
2009-06-19 01:03:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Mount Joy teenager who was 16 when he allegedly played a role in the 2007 doorstep killing of Ray Diener will be tried as an adult.Emru Kebede's attorney on Thursday withdrew a petition that his client be tried in juvenile court, citing overwhelming evidence that prosecutors planned ......
2009-06-18 00:31:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Bones found by a trapper Tuesday in a section of woods in Pequea Township are the remains of a bear, officials determined Wednesday.The foot and ankle bones appeared to be human remains, so police and a Lancaster County forensic team responded to the site in the 3500 block of Willow Street......
2009-06-16 00:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A team of officers and a police K-9 unit scoured a patch of woods in Mount Joy Township for several hours this weekend before realizing that a report of a gunman on the loose was a hoax.The incident began Friday night when a 911 caller reported his son, 18-year-old Brian Fry, was being cha......
2009-06-16 00:32:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
An elderly couple was killed Monday morning in a single-vehicle crash on Route 23, just east of Churchtown, officials said.Paul and Josephine Faithful, each 86, died when the car they were in went into a ditch and struck a large piece of concrete about 10:30 a.m. in Caernarvon Township....
2009-06-06 01:06:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
A New Providence kennel operator charged with animal cruelty and violations of the state's dog law got a split judgment Friday.District Judge Stuart J. Mylin dismissed the misdemeanor cruelty charge against Samuel E. King, who operates Country Lane Kennels at 223 Refton Road.But......
2009-06-04 00:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Shannon Hess was sentenced Wednesday to life behind bars for killing his mother-in-law in 2007.Lancaster County Judge Jeffery D. Wright ordered the mandatory life-without-parole penalty a month after a jury convicted Hess of first-degree murder."I understand you're obligate......
2009-06-03 00:54:00
MICHAEL YODER
A drug deal gone awry was the cause of a shooting that left a man dead in the parking lot of Farnum Towers two weeks ago, city police said.However, police are not charging the teenage shooter, Jerry James, in the death of Thomas Ray Brown III — because, they said, James was defending......
2009-06-02 01:13:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Investigators have charged a woman with homicide for allegedly killing her husband May 9.The charges were brought against Tonya L. Potter even though her husband, Robert Potter, died after declining treatment from first-responders who were called to their home after his wife allegedly assa......
2009-05-30 01:02:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Lancaster County Prison Warden Vincent Guarini does not deny that one of his guards repeatedly struck an inmate who was chained to a hospital bed.But claims that the prison has a "culture of ongoing unconstitutional abuse," as cited in a civil lawsuit, are "attorney embellis......
2009-05-29 01:49:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
The state on Thursday denied Daniel P. Esh a license to continue operating his large-scale dog-breeding kennel in Leacock Township, but his attorney vowed to take the issue to a higher court."Daniel Esh will definitely appeal," said attorney Jeff Conrad of the firm Clymer & M......
2009-05-28 00:53:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Police on Wednesday accused a former Lititz mayoral candidate who also served as the youth group leader at a borough church of having a sexual relationship with a pre-teen girl.Gregory J. Nies, 56, of South Spruce Street, was arraigned Wednesday morning on two felonies and two misdemeanors......
2009-05-28 00:44:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
A veterinarian accused of mutilating a puppy's tail pleaded not guilty to an animal-cruelty charge Wednesday in Lancaster County Court.Dr. Thomas F. Stevenson, of Twin Valley Veterinary Clinic in Honey Brook, faces up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted of the misdemea......
2009-05-20 03:51:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A former all-star basketball player at McCaskey High School was sentenced Tuesday to state prison for dealing drugs.Anthony C. Hunter, 20, was sentenced to 2 to 4 years for being involved in cocaine and marijuana sales in Lancaster city.Hunter was among a group of people caught sell......
2009-05-20 03:48:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Police charged a third suspect Tuesday in the gang-related shooting in York that claimed the life of a 9-year-old Lancaster city girl.Two other men previously had been charged in connection with the homicide.Police allege Fernando Valentin Jr., 22, was involved in the fatal Mother&#......
2009-05-19 00:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Christiana motorist turned into the path of a police car Sunday, causing a collision that sent the cruiser airborne off a Sadsbury Township road, police said.Frederick Keys' car also was forced off the road in the late-night crash just west of the Lancaster-Chester county line....
2009-05-15 01:11:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County jury convicted Shannon Hess on Thursday of first-degree murder for the 2007 killing of his mother-in-law.Hess, a 31-year-old Willow Street man, looked down while his attorney patted his back as the jury foreman announced the verdict at 11:35 a.m.The verdict slip s......
2009-05-14 00:41:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Twelve Lancaster County residents will continue deliberating today over the fate of a Willow Street man accused of killing his mother-in-law.After discussing the case for about 3˝ hours Wednesday afternoon, jurors asked Judge Jeffery Wright to be excused until 9 this morning.......
2009-05-14 00:33:00
MICHAEL YODER
A Lancaster Township woman accused of an attack on her husband that allegedly led to his death Saturday is now facing charges from the incident.Tonya Lynese Potter, 41, of 1240 E. Orange St., was charged Tuesday with aggravated assault for allegedly attacking her husband, Robert Potter, 48......
2009-05-13 00:52:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
One by one, friends and relatives passed through a Lancaster County courtroom Tuesday in defense of Shannon Hess, who is accused of killing his mother-in-law at their Willow Street home.First, a group of friends described Hess' reputation in his community as one of "peacefulness.&......
2009-05-12 01:27:00
MICHAEL YODER
Janet Pearson returned to her home Saturday morning after finishing the third shift at Lancaster General Hospital to find the horrific site of a mass of police and ambulances in her neighborhood.Not knowing what happened, Pearson approached the 12-year-old son of her neighbors, Robert and ......
2009-05-12 00:52:00
PATRICK BURNS
A New Holland man was arrested Saturday and charged with molesting a child in East Earl Township.Joseph Benjamin Hock, 34, of 140 E. Main St., was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault and corruption of minors.East Earl police Chief Kevin McCarthy sai......
2009-05-12 00:49:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County jury on Monday convicted a mother of reckless endangerment for giving her 16-month-old son a scalding-hot shower in March 2007.Itza Mari Figueroa-Saez was found guilty of the misdemeanor charge but acquitted of a more serious charge — felony aggravated assault &mda......
2009-05-12 00:41:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman pointed to the recent bust of an alleged major cocaine operation in Ephrata as a reason that community should support the county's Drug Task Force.Unlike most county municipalities, Ephrata borough and township give no money to support t......
2009-05-12 00:38:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A single sock shows accused killer Shannon Hess was present when his mother-in-law was stabbed and beaten to death, prosecutors argued Monday in Lancaster County Court.The bloody sock, which was taken off Hess's right foot hours after Barbara Fritchman was killed in 2007, was shown to ......
2009-05-09 01:06:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Five years from now, Becca Franz hopes, schools struggling with a problem with heroin, bullying or gangs will be able to log on to a single Web site and find help.And she is hoping that help translates into a better future for children who end up having a rewarding life instead of a life o......
2009-05-08 00:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Veronica Hess told a Lancaster County jury Thursday that her home and her car were broken into before her mother was brutally murdered in 2007.Bill Frank, the man with whom she was having an affair, broke into her home through a bedroom window using a credit card, Mrs. Hess told jurors. Fr......
2009-05-08 00:38:00
JENNIFER TODD
A man arrested for allegedly robbing a Wrightsville bank Tuesday is a suspect in the armed holdups of nearly a dozen other businesses in southcentral Pennsylvania, police said Thursday.Arien Jamal Moore, 22, of Chanceford Township, York County, was taken into custody shortly after police s......
2009-05-08 00:34:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A New York truck driver was found guilty Wednesday of causing a 2007 vehicle crash in Manheim Township that killed a mother and her daughter.A Lancaster County jury decided that Thomas Lamonda, 52, was guilty of two counts of homicide by vehicle in connection with the fatal collision on Or......
2009-05-07 02:01:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Bill Frank testified Wednesday in Lancaster County Court about the yearlong extramarital affair he had with Veronica Hess.Wearing a gold wedding band, Frank told jurors he knew Hess was married to his co-worker, Shannon Hess, but continued to see her even after their affair became known....
2009-05-06 01:23:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
On the day Barbara Fritchman was killed in her Willow Street home, Donna Ferko-Fox drove by the house and was startled by an "angry" man outside.The man "jumped out" from behind a tree in front of the home at 53 E. Boehms Road, Ferko-Fox told a Lancaster County jury Tue......
2009-05-06 00:29:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Three men who killed a Lancaster city resident while stealing his big-screen television pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and numerous other charges Monday in county court.•••Three Lancaster city residents pleaded guilty this week t......
2009-05-05 00:44:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A "normal man living a normal life" turned into a killer in November 2007 when he found out his wife was having an affair, a prosecutor argued Monday in Lancaster County Court.The "hurt and angry husband" — 30-year-old Shannon Hess — responded to the betraya......
2009-04-30 00:52:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Jurors will be selected this week to hear the case of a Willow Street man accused of killing his mother-in-law in 2007.Lancaster County residents will be questioned as potential jurors beginning this morning before County Judge Jeffery D. Wright. The selection process is expected to last t......
2009-04-28 01:03:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A 44-year-old Philadelphia man stabbed his girlfriend nine times Monday night in Lancaster city, then threatened to kill his daughter, investigators said.Jose Cartagena was at Lancaster city police station late Monday, charged in the stabbing that happened in a home in the 100 block of Cor......
2009-04-24 00:38:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
A veterinarian for some of the area's largest breeding kennels is headed to court on an animal-cruelty charge for allegedly mutilating a puppy's tail.It was a sting operation that landed Dr. Thomas F. Stevenson of Twin Valley Veterinary Clinic in Honey Brook at a preliminary hearin......
2009-04-22 00:48:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Denver man told a Lancaster County Judge Tuesday that his drug addiction led to a "nasty downward spiral" of robbery, theft and high-speed flights from police.Eric Lee Singley, 32, admitted to a multicounty crime spree in 2007 that included nine robberies, forgery offenses and ......
2009-04-21 01:23:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A former prison escapee charged in a six-year East Coast burglary spree was brought to Lancaster County Court on Monday, where he was ordered to stand trial on local charges.Scott Alan Hornick, 37, is in federal custody awaiting trial — or trials — for allegedly belonging to a ......
2009-04-17 00:58:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A 29-year-old Paradise man was sentenced Thursday to at least 20 years in state prison for a series of bizarre break-ins in the county's southern end.Christopher Welk entered two occupied homes and tried to burglarize other homes between 2005 and 2007, according to investigators....
2009-04-14 01:03:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A 12-year-old boy shot his friend at point-blank range Sunday inside an Earl Township home, New Holland police said.The 11-year-old victim was shot in the neck, police said. Somehow he avoided serious injury and was recovering at home Monday night.The shooting was "accidental&q......
2009-04-03 00:58:00
SUSAN E. GRUBB
Three defendants have been added to a lawsuit filed in 2008 over an alleged conspiracy to defeat Roger Snyder's re-election bid for West Donegal Township supervisor in 2007.The amended complaint added township supervisors Steve Speers, Charlie Tupper and Nancy Garber as defendants, acc......
2009-04-01 01:26:00
BRIAN WALLACE
A former Cocalico High School physical education teacher has lost her teaching license for allegedly sending inappropriate text messages and photographs to one of her students.Bonnie Hirneisen, who taught at the school from 2005 to 2009, surrendered her teaching certificate in lieu of bein......
2009-04-01 00:27:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
According to testimony, Tyler Johns, who is accused of killing Kenyon Wright-Carter, had been beaten up and shot at by Wright-Carter before the pair's last encounter on Jan. 24 on Green Street.•••A 16-year-old stabbed Kenyon Wright-......
2009-03-19 00:55:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Yaquan "Squeeze" Williams fired seven shots at Mary Johnson when the woman's back was turned, according to testimony Wednesday in Lancaster County court.Police allege Williams shot Johnson in the back just after 1 a.m. Jan. 23. Four shots struck Johnson, and she fell into the......
2009-03-14 01:38:00
PATRICK BURNS
If you're planning to share some Irish cheer during the week of St. Patrick's Day, you might want to think twice before getting behind the wheel.Ross Deck, DUI sobriety checkpoint coordinator for Lancaster County, said Southcentral PA Regional DUI Task Force and State police will c......
2009-03-13 00:42:00
P.J. REILLY
Colby Dixon, 22, faces more than 20 years behind bars after a jury convicted him Thursday afternoon of attempting to kill another man at a Manheim Township bar in 2007.After deliberating for about four hours, a Lancaster County jury found Dixon, formerly of 731 E. Marion St., guilty of att......
2009-03-12 01:29:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Convicted killer Abraham Sanchez Jr. should pay for the 2007 murder of Ray Diener with his own life, a Lancaster County jury decided Wednesday night.Two days after convicting Sanchez of first-degree murder for shooting Diener to death on the doorstep of his West Donegal Township home, the ......
2009-03-11 01:16:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A convicted killer wept Tuesday as family and friends described how he was abused at home and picked on at school while growing up in Lancaster city.Abraham Sanchez Jr., 20, is facing the death penalty after a Lancaster County jury convicted him Monday of first-degree murder for shooting R......
2009-03-10 01:50:00
TIM STUHLDREHER
A 9-year-old boy brought a loaded 9 mm handgun in his bookbag to Central Manor Elementary School on Monday morning, police and school officials said.Other children notified a teacher, who notified Principal Deborah Holt, Penn Manor School District Superintendent Donald F. Stewart said.......
2009-03-10 01:44:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County jury convicted an Elizabethtown man Monday of first-degree murder for what prosecutors called the "cold-blooded" killing of 65-year-old Ray Diener.Argument over whether Abraham Sanchez Jr. will be put to death or spend the rest of his life in prison will begin ......
2009-03-07 01:01:00
P.J. REILLY
The fate of Abraham Sanchez Jr. is expected to be placed in the hands of a Lancaster County jury on Monday.And that panel will take the case without hearing any defense testimony from Sanchez or anyone else.Sanchez's attorney, Robert Kirwan II, rested his case Friday without cal......
2009-03-06 00:48:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Abraham Sanchez Jr. warned his three alleged accomplices not to talk about the killing of Ray Diener, but it was Sanchez himself who could not keep a secret, according to a witness at his trial.One of Sanchez's co-workers at a fast-food restaurant said Thursday that Sanchez described i......
2009-03-05 01:21:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The four men had "plenty" of chances to walk away from Ray Diener's home without anyone getting hurt, but instead went ahead with an ill-conceived robbery that ended with Diener's slaying.No one second-guessed the plan, however, and the accused triggerman, Abraham Sanchez......
2009-03-04 02:06:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Lorenzo Schrijver described in graphic detail Tuesday how his friend taunted and fatally shot an "old man" on his doorstep and then boasted about it.The "old man" Schrijver referred to was Ray Diener, a 65-year-old Armstrong retiree who was gunned down in 2007 outside h......
2009-02-26 00:54:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Freda Hall Stewart faced her son's killer Wednesday and forgave him for gunning down 19-year-old Ty Hall as he ran from a Lancaster city street fight in 2007.Convicted killer Abdul Walton responded with an apology to her and Hall's other relatives, who packed a Lancaster County cou......
2009-02-25 01:11:00
MADELYN PENNINO
Bartenders aren't baby sitters.That's the opinion of several local people in the bar business in reaction to prosecutors who recently filed involuntary manslaughter charges against a Dauphin County bar in connection with a fatal car crash that happened more than a year ago.O......
2009-02-23 00:06:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The 20-year-old man accused of shooting Ray Diener to death on his West Donegal Township doorstep in 2007 goes to trial this week.Abraham Sanchez Jr. could face the death penalty for allegedly killing Diener, 65, during a robbery at 1016 West Ridge Road, just south of Elizabethtown.......
2009-02-21 01:56:00
PATRICK BURNS
Police charged a New Holland man Friday with the attempted sexual assault of a woman who had employed the suspect to do work at her home.Byron Collado, 32, of 237 W. Main St., was arrested by Detective Jonathan Heisse, who charged Collado with criminal attempted rape in an incident that oc......
2009-02-19 14:30:00
TOM MURSE
Lancaster City's fire chief said the blaze that killed a 3-year-old boy and severely burned his uncle Wednesday could — and should — have been prevented....
2009-02-19 10:30:00
JACK BRUBAKER
Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman hates meetings with analysts from the state crime lab. From maybe 25 pieces of evidence gathered at a crime site, he must choose one or two spots of blood or other evidence samples to be checked for DNA or fingerprints. The regional lab i......
2009-02-19 00:56:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Wednesday afternoon blaze in southeast Lancaster city killed a 2-year-old boy, seriously injured a man and hospitalized a teenager.Investigators did not release a cause for the two-alarm fire at 440 S. Christian St., but officials do not believe it was intentionally set."Ther......
2009-02-18 18:24:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A 2-year-old boy was killed in a Wednesday afternoon blaze in southeast Lancaster city that also seriously injured a man and hospitalized one other person. ...
2009-02-13 00:27:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Dileef Strickland avoided the death penalty Thursday when a Lancaster County jury convicted him of third-degree murder for the 2007 shooting of Donte Hammond.Prosecutors were seeking a first-degree murder conviction, and ultimately the death penalty, against Strickland, who shot Hammond in......
2009-02-12 00:19:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Dileef Strickland said he didn't realize he had shot Donte Hammond in the back after twice firing his gun — so he kept shooting.In the end, Strickland hit Hammond with four shots from his revolver, ultimately taking Hammond's life. Still, Strickland testified, he felt like th......
2009-02-11 00:42:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Donte Hammond was gunned down on a Lancaster city street after refusing to fight, according to testimony Tuesday in Lancaster County Court.Dileef Strickland shot the 21-year-old four times in the back as Hammond walked across Juniata Street on May 7, 2007, according to testimony.Str......
2009-02-10 00:45:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Twenty-one-year-old Donte Hammond "didn't have a chance" when he was gunned down in front of a Lancaster city home, a witness testified Monday.Brenda Hardy, who had known Hammond for years, said she watched the young man turn away after a conversation with two men and walk to......
2009-02-07 01:08:00
PATRICK BURNS
A man convicted of operating a violent multimillion-dollar cocaine and heroin ring here is in Chester County Prison awaiting trial on capital murder charges.Prince C. "Boo" Isaac, 25, allegedly conspired with his half brother, Shamek Hynson, to kill Omar Reid on Oct. 18, 2004, at......
2009-02-07 00:48:00
BRIAN WALLACE
School District of Lancaster board member Janelle Simms is seeking to have theft charges filed against her last summer after an incident in a Grantville casino dismissed.Simms, who was charged July 28 with taking a $100 bill that belonged to someone else inside Hollywood Casino, applied Mo......
2009-02-05 00:40:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A convicted rapist who recently lived in a former state representative's halfway house in Marietta has been charged with making lewd advances toward women.Richard D. Owen, 52, is accused of making vulgar statements and advances toward at least five women Friday night at Wal-Mart on Lin......
2009-01-30 00:37:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Pittsburgh man was pistol-whipping a woman on a Lancaster city street last year when another man opened fire and killed him, officials say.The fatal shooting of Curtis Howard was justified, the Lancaster County District Attorney's office ruled Thursday, because the shooter, Carlos Oy......
2009-01-29 00:46:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster teenager is facing life in prison after police charged him with homicide Wednesday for the weekend stabbing of another teen.Tyler Johns, 16, is accused of stabbing Kenyon Wright-Carter, 18, Saturday on Green Street as Wright-Carter sat in a parked car.Wright-Carter spent......
2009-01-26 00:07:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
The latest suspected arson in Lancaster County might be tied to a string of other intentionally set blazes here and in a neighboring county, officials said Sunday.A wooden barn gutted by fire early Sunday in West Lampeter Township is being investigated under the same umbrella as a rash of ......
2009-01-23 00:33:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Mount Joy man avoided a possible death sentence Thursday when a Lancaster County jury acquitted him of charges that he beat his infant daughter to death.Prosecutors were pursuing a first-degree murder verdict — and ultimately the death penalty — against Owen Johnson in the 20......
2009-01-22 00:52:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A defense attorney argued Wednesday that Savannah Johnson became comatose in her father's arms in 2007 because of a beating inflicted hours earlier.A prosecutor countered that the baby girl became comatose during the 5-minute feeding with her father because the severity of her injuries......
2009-01-21 00:26:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Owen Johnson testified Tuesday he had no idea what caused his infant daughter to go limp in his arms as he tried to feed her at the family's Mount Joy home in 2007.The next day, when doctors showed him X-rays of 2-month-old Savannah's swollen brain and fractured skull, the father s......
2009-01-17 00:53:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
Through an American Sign Language interpreter, Owen Johnson told a Lancaster County jury Friday that he was happy when he found out he was going to be a father.Now Johnson, 24, faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder for the November 2007 death of his 2-month-old daught......
2009-01-16 01:17:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Owen Johnson's defense team presented a different take on evidence presented by prosecutors regarding the injuries sustained by his daughter shortly before her death.•••A forensic pathologist testified Thursday that the head injurie......
2009-01-15 01:36:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County jury was shown in gruesome detail Wednesday the many breaks and bruises 2-month-old Savannah Johnson sustained shortly before her death in 2007.Savannah's father, Owen Johnson, who is on trial in her death, couldn't bear to watch as prosecutors showed graphic sli......
2009-01-14 01:49:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Lancaster County jury returned a split verdict Tuesday in the case of a city man charged in a 2007 shooting.Ricardo Rodriguez was found guilty of aggravated assault for shooting a man — who Rodriguez thought had robbed his home — in the head at point-blank range.The vi......
2009-01-14 01:29:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Two-month-old Savannah Johnson died after sustaining "nonaccidental trauma" to her head in November 2007, according to testimony in Lancaster County Court.Who inflicted the fatal injury remains unclear after two days of testimony at trial.Owen Johnson, the baby girl's ......
2009-01-13 01:58:00
JEFF HAWKES
A city of 98,000, its 49 square miles patrolled by 225 cops, High Point, N.C., is no Mayberry R.F.D.But the innovative way High Point is combating its illegal drug markets — so busy they once created afternoon traffic jams — is something Sheriff Andy Taylor, TV's folksy kee......
2009-01-13 01:49:00
TIM STUHLDREHER
Troy L. Martin died of gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen, Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said after an autopsy Monday.An unknown assailant fired at least five shots at Martin about 11 p.m. Saturday as he got out of a friend's car in front of his house on Clearvie......
2009-01-13 01:46:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A teenage mother whose infant daughter was beaten to death at the family home in 2007 says her fiancé is a "wonderful man" who always made his daughter smile.The fiancé, 24-year-old Owen Johnson, is on trial this week in the death of 2-month-old Savannah Johnson, wh......
2009-01-09 00:49:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
At first, Aida Rodriguez thought her boyfriend was dead, she testified Thursday in Lancaster County Court.The woman had just watched from an upstairs window as her boyfriend was shot at the front door of the family's Church Street home.A gunman fired two shots toward the house i......
2009-01-08 00:10:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Millersville University student threatened one of his former professors with a knife Wednesday morning, according to school officials.The 29-year-old student, who lives off campus in Manor Township, walked into McComsey Hall on the MU campus and confronted the professor outside his offic......
2009-01-07 00:48:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
The long legal battle over Daniel P. Esh's kennel violations was finally resolved Tuesday.Esh, owner of Scarlet-Maple Farm Kennel, 68 Clearview Road, Ronks, originally faced three misdemeanor charges of housing more than 400 dogs and puppies in unsanitary conditions. The charges stemme......
2009-01-07 00:44:00
TIM STUHLDREHER
The fallout from his painful run-in with Lancaster city police last year hasn't ended for convicted felon Charles Robert Lewis.Two officers shot Lewis, 25, multiple times early Nov. 19 when he allegedly attempted to pull a gun on them as he fled on South Mary Street. The shooting was r......
2009-01-06 00:29:00
PATRICK BURNS
The Lancaster County district attorney said Monday that an error by officials in Puerto Rico allowed a homicide suspect to be released from custody in Lancaster 16 months ago.Fugitive Elvis Quinones-Cruz, 30, was arrested Dec. 31 for the second time in Lancaster, and this time police said ......
2009-01-01 00:05:00
PATRICK BURNS
The killing of Jose A. Diaz on Dec. 13 raised the total slayings in Lancaster County this year to 12, equaling 2007's total.An unknown assailant shot Diaz just outside the Lancaster city border, making it the sixth killing investigated by city police in 2008.Police have made arr......
2008-12-24 00:48:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
An oft-convicted drug dealer was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for peddling cocaine in Lancaster city while toting an illegal handgun.Steven U. Rose, 26, was found guilty of felony drug and gun charges after a jury trial in August.On Tuesday in Philadelphia, U.S. D......
2008-12-23 00:59:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
A Philadelphia man who shot five people — including a toddler — last year in Lancaster city was sentenced Monday to up to 100 years in state prison.County Judge Joseph C. Madenspacher ordered Mark Q. Galloway, 40, to spend at least 41˝ years in prison for the shooting ra......
2008-12-20 00:42:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
A Lancaster County jury Friday convicted Abdul Walton of first-degree murder and all other charges related to the March 9, 2007, fatal shooting of Tyquan Hall.Walton, of Philadelphia, faces life in prison plus 80 years for killing Hall and wounding two others outside a house party at 344 S......
2008-12-19 01:19:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
A Lancaster County jury Thursday began deliberating the fate of a Philadelphia man accused of the fatal shooting of Tyquan Hall and the wounding of two others in March 2007.Abdul Walton, 22, faces life in prison plus 80 years if convicted on all charges in the triple shooting: criminal hom......
2008-12-18 01:00:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
A puff of smoke. The crowd quickly scatters. Tyquan Hall drops to the sidewalk. One person, clearly visible in the videotape, paces back and forth in front of Hall's lifeless body.On Wednesday, jurors watched a dramatic videotape of Hall's murder as it was caught by street surveill......
