In the news
Tim Card, fire chief in Sheffield Lake, Ohio, said firefighters used a pocketknife to cut the head off a 5-foot boa constrictor that wouldn’t let go of a 45-yearold woman who called 911 when the snake wrapped around her neck and began biting her nose and face.
Trystan Westrip, 16, was charged as an adult with murder during a court hearing where a detective testified that the teen, upon arrest in Greene County, Mo., while driving a pickup owned by an 80-year-old stabbing victim, told officers it had “been a really fun day.”
Lisa Gorcyca, a judge in Oakland County, Mich., was censured by the state Supreme Court, but not suspended, for holding three children in contempt in 2015 and sending them to detention for two weeks because they refused to see their father after a divorce.
Roderick Geronimo, 55, of East Poultney, Vt., who told police that he killed his 82-year-old mother in 2012 because he believed she was possessed by Satan, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that he was suffering a psychotic episode at the time.
Ned Horowitz, a veterinarian in Massapequa, N.Y., said the owners of a 77-pound African spurred tortoise found beside a Long Island road reclaimed their slow-moving pet named Tito after seeing postings on social media about the lost tortoise.
Jules Parent, a 69-yearold Canadian retiree from Quebec, first won $1 million playing the lottery in 2008 and now has picked up a second check for about $1.2 million after hitting the jackpot from an online play that cost him $3.20.
Franklin Brown, a McCreary County, Ky., sheriff’s deputy, was arrested on accusations that he filed a false report after investigators determined he had shot himself and claimed that he was shot by a motorcyclist he was trying to pull over.
Otishus Kirkwood, 36, of Kansas City, Mo., faces a first-degree assault charge and other counts after being arrested on allegations that he threw an old television set from a third-floor balcony that struck a woman on the head, critically injuring her, authorities said.
Thomas Brown, 21, of Rogersville, Ala., was jailed on charges of reckless endangerment and permitting livestock to run at large after his 350-pound pig attacked and injured a 3-year-old girl as she played outside her home, deputies said.