Courtesy of Huntsville police.Duane ClarkHUNTSVILLE, AL — Huntsville police arrested Duane Arlen Clark, 51, on charges of vehicular homicide for his role in a fatal accident that happened last October.
Keara Kroelinger, 26, died at the scene of the 3-vehicle accident at Bailey Cove Road and Willowbrook Drive on Oct. 24.
Huntsville police Sgt. Mark Roberts said the charges came after the results of Clark’s toxicology report were returned.
By DENISE LAVOIE
AP Legal Affairs Writer
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
BOSTON (AP) — The death of the father of Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan was ruled a homicide Tuesday when an autopsy showed he died of a heart rhythm problem after a fight with his son in which he suffered a neck injury so severe it damaged his windpipe.
The findings could prompt new charges against Kerrigan’s brother, Mark, who has pleaded not guilty to assault and battery on a person over 60 and is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital.
Daniel Kerrigan, 70, died Jan. 24 after what authorities said was a struggle with his 45-year-old son, Mark.
Police say Mark Kerrigan told them he put his hands around his father’s neck and his father fell to the floor after the two argued at their Stoneham home.
Family members had initially said Daniel Kerrigan had a heart attack and his death was unrelated to the argument.
The autopsy results released Tuesday by Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said the elder Kerrigan also had underlying health conditions, including high blood pressure and clogged heart arteries.
“As a result of these conclusions of the medical examiner, the investigation into Daniel Kerrigan’s death, and whether any charges in connection with his death are appropriate, remains ongoing,” Leone said in a statement.
The findings imply a strangulation-type injury in a man already vulnerable to heart problems, said an expert not connected with the autopsy, Dr. Ian Paul, associate medical examiner for the state of New Mexico.
“The assault itself would have caused significant physiological stress,” Paul said. “It would have put direct stress to the heart itself because the heart is working faster, and in somebody with underlying heart disease, they would be at a much greater risk of experiencing sudden cardiac death.”
A Gordon man pleaded guilty Monday to causing the death of his fiance in a fatal crash during which authorities said he drove nearly 140 mph in his Chevrolet Camaro along U.S. 231 South.
Assistant District Attorney Banks Smith said Shaun Cast, 28, of John David Road, pleaded guilty to felony manslaughter. Banks said Circuit Court Judge Butch Binford gave Cast a five-year sentence, with one year to serve in Houston County Community Corrections, and four years of probation.
Alabama State Troopers arrested Cast on July 24, 2009, about a month after the crash. He was released from custody after he posted a $30,000 bond. Had Cast gone to trial he could’ve faced two to 20 years in prison for the class B felony.
Smith said Cast was also ordered to give up his driver’s license for three years as part of his sentence.
“He was driving down 231 South toward Florida right at 138 mph, according to the computer chip taken out of the car, and he killed his fiance sitting in the backseat,” Smith said. “It was a dangerous and excessive speed that’s why we charged him with manslaughter, but there was no drugs or alcohol involved.”
Smith said Cast’s Camaro struck another vehicle crossing U.S. 231, but that motorist was not injured in the crash.
“He was going so fast it flipped end over end, traveled through a field 250 yards from the initial point of impact,” Smith said.
Cast’s attorney Derek Yarbrough said his client and a second passenger both suffered injuries in the crash. He said Cast has gone through several surgeries to repair the injuries he suffered. Yarbrough also said Cast will continue to work at Jim Whaley’s Tires while he is serving a year at Houston County Community Corrections.
“My client just decided not to take any risk of going to trial and accept the guilty plea,” Yarbrough said. “This was a situation both sides came together and resolved. In my mind it was fair to everyone, to my client and the victims.”
Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s doctor, is escorted by Los Angeles County Sheriffs deputies as he arrives at the Airport Courthouse to face charges of involuntary manslaughter in the singer’s death, Feb. 8, 2010. (AP)Michael Jackson’s doctor has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of the pop star.
Dr. Conrad Murray, a Houston cardiologist who was with Jackson when he died he died June 25 at his rented Los Angeles mansion, entered his plea Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court just hours after he was charged. He was released from jail after posting $75,000 in bail.
He could face up to four years in prison if convicted.
Murray appeared in court in a gray suit as Jackson’s father Joe, mother Katherine, and siblings LaToya, Jermaine, Tito, Jackie and Randy sat behind prosecutors.
One person shouted “murderer” Monday as Murray walked past a throng of reporters and Jackson fans and into the courthouse adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport.
Authorities say Murray caused Jackson’s death by administering a powerful sedative to help him sleep. He is accused of acting “unlawfully and without malice” in bringing about Jackson’s death, according to a complaint filed by prosecutors.
Jackson hired Murray to be his personal physician as he prepared for a strenuous series of comeback performances.
Officials say the singer died in Los Angeles after Murray administered the powerful general anesthetic propofol and two other sedatives to get the chronic insomniac to sleep. continue reading
HARRISBURG, PA — U.S. Rep. John Murtha, an influential critic of the Iraq War whose congressional career was shadowed by questions about his ethics, died Monday. He was 77.
The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said.
In 1974 Murtha, then an officer in the Marine Reserves, became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress. One of Congress’ most hawkish Democrats, he wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.
Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but Murtha’s growing frustration over the administration’s handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.
“The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion,” he said.
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