Woman admits to role in stepmother’s death
CHAMBERSBURG, PA. >> A Pennsylvania woman who admitted to a role in the killing of her stepmother has been sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.
Tosha Daley, 29, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and robbery in what authorities have called a murder-for-hire plot of her stepmother, Jamie Daley, PennLive.com reported on Tuesday.
Nicholas Shin, 24, told police Tosha Daley hired him to “whack her stepmom,” according to an affidavit. He said Tosha Daley drove him to Jamie Daley’s Greene Township home and handed him a knife when he arrived.
Police said Jamie Daley was found near a neighbor’s home covered in blood after Shinn stabbed and beat her to death on Dec. 8, 2017.
Tosha Daley denies that her stepmother’s killing was planned. She told investigators that she and Shinn planned to rob the home and that she tried to call her stepmother to warn her, according to the affidavit.
Shin is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in October.
More charges announced in gang drug, sex trafficking case
READING, PA. >> Federal authorities have announced more charges in an investigation of what they call a violent drug gang that engaged in sex trafficking, attempted murder and murder in eastern Pennsylvania.
U.S. Attorney William McSwain said the racketeering conspiracy and other charges against 13 people stem from a yearslong investigation into a gang called “The Sevens” that primarily operated from a Reading boarding house from December 2017 to last March.
The indictment lists 15 victims of sex trafficking and violent crime, two of them minors. Authorities allege one victim was killed and others were shot, assaulted with a baton, stabbed, or hit with a hammer. They allege one victim was “forced to have a sexual encounter with a gun held to her head.”
The charges include racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, and various violent crimes including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and assault.
Authorities last year announced a drug-trafficking and weapons indictment of eight alleged highlevel gang members they said were responsible for as many as eight homicides.
The investigation was conducted by the federal Homeland Security department and Reading police.
Drug detective accused of trading official actions for sex
HARRISBURG, PA. >> A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses a former central Pennsylvania detective who served on a drug task force of having traded official actions for sexual favors.
Federal prosecutors said a grand jury indicted former Carlisle police officer Christopher Collare, 52, of Blythewood, South Carolina, on charges of bribery, heroin distribution, fraud and lying to federal agents.
The 27-page indictment issued Jan. 16 said Collare worked as a Carlisle police officer from 1996 to late 2018, and served on the Cumberland County Drug Task Force as well as an FBI task force in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Collare did not appear to have a listed phone number, and online court records do not indicate whether he is represented by a defense attorney.
Carlisle Mayor Tim Scott said he was disappointed by news of the charges.
“It’s important to note that the alleged conduct occurred years ago,” Scott wrote in an email, noting it was before the current chief was hired. “I do however want to see if we can learn anything from this but, again, I know our officers are doing a great job.”
Scott said Collare resigned in 2018.
Starting in 2011, the grand jury alleges, Collare lied about the amount of drugs purchased by informants and gave informants drugs that had been seized. He is also accused of having allowed confidential informants to keep drugs they obtained during controlled purchases made during investigations.
Authorities also allege that hired a prostitute from an online ad in December 2011 and gave that unnamed person money and heroin for sex acts between 2011 and August 2014, according to the indictment. He is also accused of having agreed to skip a hearing in 2015 that resulted in dismissal of drug charges against the boyfriend of someone with whom he had sex, according to the indictment.
Police: Teen high on drugs when she led cops on chase
GILPIN, PA. >> Police in western Pennsylvania believe a 14-year-old was high on drugs when she took her mother’s car with four other teens, led officers on a chase and crashed.
Gilpin Police Chief Chris Fabec told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review he pursued the vehicle as it weaved through traffic in no-passing zones at speeds up to 70 mph early Monday.
The car veered off the road, went down an incline and stopped in a wooded area.
The five teens in the car started to run off, but Fabec says they stopped when he ordered them to do so.
The driver faces juvenile charges including reckless driving and driving under the influence of drugs. The chief did not say what kind of drugs. Her name was not released because of her age.
No one was injured.
Drug cases dropped over investigation into arresting officer
SCRANTON, PA. >> Felony drug cases against 18 people have been withdrawn because the Pennsylvania police officer who arrested them is under criminal investigation.
The Lackawanna County district attorney’s office withdrew the cases late last month because of alleged misconduct by Scranton Police Cpl. Thomas McDonald, the Times-Tribune reported Wednesday.
The district attorney wrote in court filings Dec. 30 that the allegations against the 46-year-old officer cast “significant doubt on his credibility and compromises the integrity” of the investigations he ran.
“It’s exceptionally disappointing,” District Attorney Mark Powell said.
Public documents confirm that McDonald is under investigation but do not detail the allegations. Both Powell and Police Chief Carl Graziano declined to go into the claims against the officer, who has not been criminally charged.
McDonald, a 17-year veteran of the police department, declined to comment to the Times-Tribune on Tuesday.