PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania woman who called herself Jihad Jane and admitted she plotted to kill a Swedish artist who offended Muslims faces a life sentence in December.
Pennsburg resident Colleen LaRose has been in custody since she returned from Ireland to surrender to the FBI in 2009.
Her arrest was kept secret until several other people were rounded up months later. A Maryland teenager has been charged.
Court papers show the 48-year-old LaRose called herself Jihad Jane in an online video and said she was "desperate" to help Muslims.
LaRose pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder a foreign target and support terrorists and lying to the FBI. The murder plot wasn't carried out.
Prosecutors said Monday LaRose's sentencing will be Dec. 19 in Philadelphia. Sentencing had been set for this month.
LaRose's lawyer hasn't returned a message seeking comment.
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Guilty plea in Philly-area double slaying
DOYLESTOWN — A southeastern Pennsylvania man will spend the rest of his life in prison for a brutal double homicide that shocked a quiet community in suburban Philadelphia.
Forty-one-year-old Lloyd Hill of Nockamixon Township pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder on Monday, the day his trial was supposed to begin in Bucks County Court. He was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Hill has been behind bars since the Jan. 27 slayings of his estranged wife and her boyfriend at the apartment they shared.
Investigators said he ambushed 43-year-old Frederick Tarantino outside and beat him to death with a baseball bat, then went inside and fatally stabbed 36-year-old Stefanie Hill.
Prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty if Hill was convicted.
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Pittsburgh tow truck driver guilty in DUI fatality
PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh tow truck driver has pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, drunken driving, driving without a license and 15 other charges for crashing head-on into a vehicle, killing a woman and severely injuring her young son.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports 51-year-old Duane Woodson will be sentenced Jan. 3 on those charges and an unrelated drug possession case.
Police say Woodson's crash killed the driver of the other vehicle, 45-year-old Christine Beilstein, of Plum, and left her 9-year-old son, Justin, with a severe head injury.
The boy's father, William Beilstein, of Deatsville, Ala., didn't attend Monday's guilty plea because he was with his son who was having related surgery at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.
Woodson ran away after the May 12 crash, but was brought back to the scene by a witness.
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Trial ordered for 6 teens in beating case
MEDIA — Six teenagers charged in the videotaped beating of a mentally challenged woman on her stoop have been ordered held for trial.
The teenagers, all female, appeared Monday before a magistrate in Delaware County on charges of simple and aggravated assault, burglary and other offenses.
The Delaware County Daily Times says five suspects who are juveniles but are charged as adults waived their preliminary hearings. The other defendant asked for the hearing, and prosecutors called two witnesses to testify, after which the judge held her for trial on all charges.
Investigators allege that the teens — apparently for 'fun' — punched, kicked and hit the woman with a shoe and a chair in Chester last month.
One of the suspects recorded the beating and it was posted online.
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Deputy AG, wife can see own kids, not adopted duo
PITTSBURGH — A judge says a state deputy attorney general and his wife can have supervised visits with their two young biological children, but not two adopted children from Ethiopia who the western Pennsylvania couple is charged with a abusing.
Allegheny County prosecutors objected to any visits when 33-year-old Douglas Barbour and his wife, 30-year-old Kristen Barbour, appeared in court for a bond hearing Monday.
The couple was charged earlier this month with child endangerment and assault for not properly feeding their adopted 6-year-old son and head injuries suffered by their 18-month-daughter who, prosecutors say, will likely be blind and paralyzed because of a stroke she suffered as a result of the alleged abuse.
The couple will be allowed supervised visits with their biological children, ages 2 and 4, who have not been abused.
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Married jail guards charged in timecard probe
ERIE — A northwestern Pennsylvania county prison guard and his supervisor wife have been charged with tampering with payroll records that resulted in the man being overpaid $3,428 from February through July.
Online court records don't list attorneys for Daniel and Leslie Danowski, who were charged Monday with conspiracy to tamper with public records at the Erie County Prison.
The Erie Times-News says 39-year-old Leslie Danowski, a captain at the prison, was suspended without pay Monday. Her husband, 37-year-old Daniel, has been suspended since the investigation began in July.
Daniel Danowski is also charged with selling more than 400 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition belonging to the prison to a former guard. He's charged with theft and receiving stolen property, but his wife has not been implicated in those alleged crimes.
The couple didn't return a call to their home Monday.
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Philly archdiocese reinstates 1 suspended priest
PHILADELPHIA — The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has reinstated a priest placed on leave after a February 2011 grand jury report into child sexual abuse.
The diocese said Monday that Archbishop Charles Chaput decided the Rev. Joseph DiGregorio is suitable for ministry.
Church officials say an investigation found the 72-year-old DiGregorio violated The Standards of Ministerial Behaviors and Boundaries more than 40 years ago, but they did not say how.
They say there's compelling evidence that makes him suitable for ministry and that there's no evidence he poses a danger to children. He had been suspended after the grand jury report, but later said in a radio interview the allegations against him were "a lie."
Officials say there are nine administrative leave cases remaining, but details of those are not being announced Monday.
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Big winners from state gas drilling impact fee
Pennsylvania state officials said Monday about $200 million worth of impact fees from the Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling industry are about to be sent out, with the largest portion being directed to counties where the drilling occurred.Getting at least $1 million apiece are:
- Allegheny County, $1.1 million.
- Bradford County, $8.4 million.
- Clearfield County, $1.15 million.
- Fayette County, $1.45 million.
- Greene County, $3.1 million.
- Lycoming County, $4 million.
- Philadelphia County, $1.3 million.
- Susquehanna County, $3.9 million.
- Tioga County, $4.8 million.
- Washington County, $4.4 million.
- Westmoreland County, $1.7 million.
Other notables:
- Armstrong County, $570,000.
- Butler County, $897,000.
- Centre County, $660,000.
- Lawrence Township, Clearfield County (population 7,700): $970,000.
- Clinton County, $739,000.
- Redstone Township, Fayette County (population 5,600): $377,000.
Greene and Lycoming counties both have three townships that each got $500,000 or more. Susquehanna County (population 43,000) and Washington County have four and Tioga County (population 42,000) has five.
- Pleasant Valley Township, Potter County (population 86): $123,000.
- Potter County (population 17,000): $554,000.
- Sullivan County (population 6,400): $386,000.
- Washington Township, Wyoming County (population 1,400): $490,000
Other larger pieces of pie:
- Department of Environmental Protection, $6 million.
- Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, environmental stewardship fund, $7.2 million.
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Source: Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
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