Prosecutor: Professor spent federal grants at strip clubs

PHILADELPHIA >> A former university professor in Philadelphia spent federal grant money on strip clubs and other personal expenses, prosecutors said Monday.

Chika Nwankpa misappropriated grant money from the Navy, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation over a period of 10 years, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Drexel University discovered the alleged fraud in 2017 during an internal audit and alerted the government.

Most of the money was spent on strip clubs and sports bars in the Philadelphia area, according to a news release.

“This is an example of flagrant and audacious fraud, and a shameful misuse of public funds.” said U.S. Attorney William McSwain. “The agencies providing these grant funds expect them to be used towards advancements in energy and naval technology for public benefit, not for personal entertainment.”

McSwain lauded Drexel for reporting the matter but expressed disappointment that Nwankpa’s conduct “went unnoticed for so long.”

Drexel has agreed to pay $189,000 to resolve its potential civil liability in the case. The university said in a statement that it takes “allegations of unethical or unlawful business conduct ... very seriously,” adding that it has improved its auditing controls.

Nwankpa repaid more than $53,000, resigned from Drexel and was barred from federal contracting for six months, prosecutors said. He has not been charged with a crime.

A message seeking comment was left at a number for Nwankpa, who worked at Drexel for 27 years until his 2017 resignation. An online profile for Nwankpa said he is self-employed as an engineering consultant.

Man charged with killing stepmother, brother

MEADVILLE, PA. >> A man has been charged with criminal homicide in the shooting deaths of his stepmother and his brother in northwestern Pennsylvania.

Twenty-one-year-old Jack Turner, who was arraigned Monday in Crawford County, also faces charges in the alleged theft of the adult victim’s car and the robbery of a Millcreek Township convenience store on the day after the slayings.

District Attorney Francis Schultz says the bodies of 49-year-old Shannon Whitman and 10-year-old Darrin Whitman were found Aug. 10 inside a Randolph Township home. The county coroner’s office said both died of gunshot wounds to the head.

Schultz says Turner is Shannon Whitman’s stepson and the boy’s brother. Authorities say he was arrested Aug. 14 in Charleston, West Virginia and returned to Pennsylvania. A call seeking comment was made to his attorney.

2 men sought after shooting near college kills 1, wounds 1

SHIPPENSBURG, PA. >> A southern Pennsylvania university has canceled classes as state police search for two students following a shooting near the campus that left a Philadelphia man dead and another critically wounded.

Police said two 20-yearold men from Philadelphia are being sought in the shooting, which occurred around 8:15 p.m. Sunday a few blocks away from Shippensburg University. The university said both men being sought are registered students but they were not in class and there was no indication they were on campus. Classes and other scheduled activities, however, were canceled as of 2 p.m. Monday “in the best interests of students, faculty and staff.”

State police say the body of 21-year-old Shakur Myers was found near a vehicle and 21-year-old Samir Stevenson was flown to a hospital in critical condition.

Deliveryman to be tried on manslaughter, not murder charge

PHILADELPHIA >> A judge has agreed to a request by Philadelphia’s top prosecutor to drop a third-degree murder charge against a bicycle deliveryman in the stabbing death of a real estate developer during a traffic confrontation near the city’s tony Rittenhouse Square last year.

Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn Bronson on Monday accepted District Attorney Larry Krasner’s argument Friday that prosecutors had the best chance of a conviction pursuing only voluntary manslaughter and weapons count charges against 22-year-old Michael White.

Police say 37-year-old Sean Schellenger was in a car with two others in July 2018 when a confrontation began with White, who was delivering food on his bicycle and who authorities said pulled a knife and stabbed Schellenger. Prosecutors earlier withdrew a first-degree murder charge in the case.

Linda Schellenger, the victim’s mother, blasted Krasner’s decision to drop the third-degree murder charge Friday and urged the judge to reject the motion, saying “let the jury decide.” The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the judge told people in the courtroom that relatives, friends, and lawyers should not speak to reporters during the trial as jury selection began Monday.

Krasner said in the motion that jurors could accept that the stabbing occurred “under a sudden or intense passion from serious provocation or acting in unreasonable self-defense” and still convict on voluntary manslaughter, but those elements would be acceptable as a legal defense on a third-degree murder charge, so his “strategic and policy-based decision” was that a lead charge of voluntary manslaughter was the best chance for “a just conviction.”

In August, White’s lawyers told the judge that their client would testify that Schellenger used a racial epithet during a physical altercation. Schellenger hadn’t been previously accused of such remarks and prosecutors told the judge at the hearing that they had no evidence that he had done so. White is black and Schellenger was white; the two men didn’t know each other.

Krasner said that White will face new evidencetampering and obstruction charges, and said there was an “agreement by the defense” to those charges if prosecutors move to drop the third-degree murder charge.

Teenage girl pleads to murder of friend’s grandfather

WILKES-BARRE, PA. >> A teenage girl has pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the death of her friend’s grandfather earlier this year in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Sixteen-year-old Mercedes Hall entered the plea Monday in an agreement with prosecutors that calls for a six- to 12-year sentence and requires her to testify against her three co-defendants.

Authorities in Luzerne County say 71-year-old Joseph Monka was beaten and stabbed 43 times in April before $30,000 was stolen from a basement safe in Edwardsville.

Defense attorney Larry Kansky said Hall “feels very sorry” for the victim’s “horrific death” and apologizes to his family and friends.

Monka’s 17-year-old granddaughter, who was living with him, was also charged but is seeking to have her case moved to juvenile court. Her 19-yearold boyfriend and a 20-yearold man are awaiting trial.

Judge chosen to resentence Sandusky in child sex abuse case

HARRISBURG, PA. >> A new judge is in place to handle the child sexual abuse resentencing hearing for former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday issued an order appointing Judge Maureen Skerda to take over the case.

The previous jurist, Judge John Foradora of Jefferson County, recused himself last month.

A prosecutor and Sandusky’s defense lawyer agreed in a court document that Foradora needed to step aside because of what they called an action in August by the attorney general’s office that was “separate, distinct and wholly unrelated” to the Sandusky case.

The 75-year-old Sandusky’s serving a 45-count conviction, but an appeals court ruled in February that mandatory minimums had been improperly applied.

Skerda is a judge in Warren and Forest counties.