Prosecutor: Notes defense sought in drowning case destroyed
SCRANTON, PA. » Prosecutors say they can’T provide handwritten notes taken during the police interrogation of a homeless man charged in the drowning death of a woman because the notes have been destroyed.
Authorities in Lackawanna County allege that 25-year-old Ryan Taylor was arguing with Danee Mower on Feb. 28 death and flipped her backward into the Lackawanna River, where the coroner said she died of hypothermia and drowning. Defense attorney Matthew Comerford is challenging a police detective’s testimony that Taylor wept and confessed when told that Mower was dead.
The (Scranton) TimesTribune reports that Comerford sought handwritten notes jotted down by police during the alleged confession, but police and prosecutors said such notes are routinely destroyed once they are used to generate a police report.
Mural of ex-mayor, police commissioner defaced
PHILADELPHIA » A day after the arrest of a man accused of defacing a statue of a former Philadelphia mayor and police commissioner, a mural of the same figure was defaced with paint.
Police said officers saw a group spray-paint “Kill killer cops” on the large south Philadelphia mural of Frank Rizzo shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday. The mural also had a large splotch of white paint on the face. Officers pursued the group on foot and arrested one male, also recovering spray paint and masks discarded by the group.
A man was arrested Friday on charges of spray painting the words “Black power” on the Center City statue of Rizzo.
Pennsylvania woman falls ill, dies on Colorado hiking trip
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, COLO. » A Pennsylvania woman has fallen ill and died during a backpacking trip in Colorado.
Pitkin County sheriff’s officials say the unidentified woman got sick Thursday while hiking with three friends to Conundrum Hot Springs. They planned to camp at the hot springs but instead set up a tent after the 20-year-old woman began vomiting.
Two of the hikers went for help and a third remained with the woman in the backcountry.
The Glenwood Springs Post Independent reports (http://bit.ly/2wcIdOg ) a helicopter sent for the woman overnight was unable to land, possibly because of the weather.
The woman had died by the time another helicopter arrived early Friday morning.
Deputy Coroner Eric Hansen says the cause of death likely won’t be known until an autopsy is performed.
2 more arrested in murder of man killed in front of daughter
ALLENTOWN, PA. » Two more people have been arrested in the slaying of a man Pennsylvania authorities say was gunned down in front of his young daughter during a robbery in his apartment.
Twenty-three-year-old Brandon Lee Eanes and 23-year-old Sasha Vargas are charged in Lehigh County with criminal homicide, robbery, burglary and conspiracy in the Aug. 13 killing of 39-yearold Jermaine Taylor.
Facing the same charges is 20-year-old Waldemar Rivera. Twentynine-year-old Isaac Navarro is charged with homicide and conspiracy.
Investigators said a masked group forced Taylor to open his safe and then shot him five times, telling his daughter to turn around before they opened fire.
Court documents indicate that Rivera, Eanes and Vargas are being represented by the county public defender’s office, which could not be reached for comment over the weekend.