Woman reportedly admitted killing girl
A woman believed to be the mother of a 2-year-old whose body was found in Galveston Bay told police she and the girl’s stepfather beat and tortured the child to death, court documents show.
The details in an arrest affidavit paint a chilling picture of the last days of the girl investigators called “Baby Grace” as they worked for weeks to learn her identity.
Investigators said Monday they are “fairly confident” the body found in a plastic box Oct. 29 is that of Riley Ann Sawyers. Her mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, and stepfather, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, were arrested Saturday on charges of hurting the girl.
An autopsy revealed that Riley suffered three skull fractures, but the cause of death has not been determined.
In a statement to police included in court documents, Trenor, 19, said she and Zeigler, 24, killed Riley on July 24.
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Suspect will testify about attack on pair
A teenager charged in the horrifying gang rape and beating of a woman and her son agreed to a plea deal Monday that will send him to prison for 20 years.
Jakaris Taylor, 16, pleaded guilty to sexual battery and burglary and will testify against three other teens charged in the June attack, according to the state attorney’s office.
Three other teens - 18, 17 and 14 - face charges including sexual battery, kidnapping and burglary. They could face life sentences if convicted.
Norristown, Pa.
Professor pleads guilty in wife’s death
An Ivy League professor pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter for beating his wife to death with a chin-up bar as she wrapped Christmas presents last year, telling a judge he “just lost it” during an argument.
Rafael Robb, a tenured economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, faces a likely prison sentence of 4 ½ to seven years for the Dec. 22 bludgeoning of his wife, Ellen. She had been planning to move out the next month and seek a divorce after a rocky 16-year marriage.
Robb, 57, testified Monday he argued with his wife about a trip she and their 12-year-old daughter were taking over the holiday break.
“We started a discussion about that. The discussion was tense,” Robb said. “We were both anxious about it. We both got angry. At one point, Ellen pushed me. … I just lost it.”
Chicago
3 die after bus goes across median
Three people were killed Sunday when a Chicago-to-Dallas passenger bus crossed the median and was sandwiched between two trucks on a rain-slicked interstate in eastern Arkansas, officials said.
Bus passengers Raul Lopez, 58, and an unidentified middle-aged woman were killed, as was the driver of a pickup hit by the bus, operated by Dallas-based Tornado Bus, authorities said.
Twenty-six people from the crash were in Arkansas and Tennessee hospitals Monday evening, three in critical condition, said Andres Chao, Mexican consul of Little Rock, Ark.
Arkansas State Police had not determined the cause of the crash nor issued any citations or charges Monday night.
Also
New York: Striking Broadway stagehands and theater producers returned to the bargaining table Monday, 12 hours after ending a marathon negotiating session aimed at settling a labor dispute that has kept most of Broadway dark for more than two weeks.
Polygamy: A lawyer for polygamous-sect leader Warren Jeffs, convicted in Utah for arranging a marriage between an underage woman and her cousin, said Monday that he will ask for a change of venue for his client’s related trial in Arizona.
Fort Dix plot: Three of the five men charged with plotting an attack on the Army’s Fort Dix have asked a judge to move them out of a high-security prison unit in Philadelphia, saying they were being illegally denied the right to see all of the evidence against them.
Seattle Times news services