In the news
■ Carmen Davis, 59, of Opp, Ala., was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after authorities say she stole nearly $90,000 from the now-defunct Brooklyn Congregational Methodist Church in Coffee County, where she worked as secretary, using some of the money for trips to casinos.
■ Lydell Grant, 46, of Houston, who was exonerated in 2021 after being convicted in a fatal stabbing and serving seven years in prison, was jailed in lieu of a $1 million bond in the fatal shooting of a fellow motorist, police said.
■ Bonnie Gooch , a 78-year-old previously convicted of two bank robberies, handed a teller a note stating that she “didn’t mean to scare you” during a heist in which she demanded “13,000 small bills” in Pleasant Hill, Mo., authorities said.
■ Michael Phillips, 47, faces up to eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in the death of another incarcerated man during a 2017 fight at a federal prison in Yazoo City, Miss., federal authorities said.
■ Thabo Bester, 35, a South African convicted murderer dubbed the “Facebook Rapist” as he used the social media platform to lure at least two women he was convicted of raping, was arrested in Tanzania after a two-week manhunt, police announced.
■ Michael McCaul, chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters in Taipei that “China is very good at what we call intelligence surveillance reconnaissance … [and] they can see everything in the Pacific.”
■ Matt Thompson, president and CEO of the Memphis Zoo, said Ya Ya, a giant panda headed back to China, was “one of the most spoiled animals on the planet,” in response to groups that claim pandas suffer in zoos.
■ Buta Biberaj, the top prosecutor in Loudoun County, Va., said there was nothing in a video of a YouTube prankster being shot while playing a joke on a man at a mall “that would suggest, based on information we have to date, that what [the prankster] did warranted this response.”
■ Jasmeshia Wilkins, 32, of Mendenhall, Miss., faces one count each of possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute, introduction of contraband into a correctional facility and conspiracy, as authorities say she smuggled marijuana products and and three cellphones into a state prison.