NEWS OF THE DAY
1 _ Bail revoked: A graduate of a New England prep school who was convicted of sexually assaulting a younger student was taken into custody Friday after acknowledging that he violated conditions of his bail agreement by missing curfew. A judge in Concord, N. H., said Owen Labrie would begin his one- year jail sentence immediately. Labrie had been living with his mother in Tunbridge, Vt., as he appealed his sentence. He was supposed to be home between 5 p. m. and 8 a. m. each night, but a prosecutor said he violated it at least eight times. Labrie was arrested in 2014 days after graduating from St. Paul’s School. He was 18 at the time of the encounter.
2 _ Daughters slain: An awardwinning concert pianist arrived at his estranged wife’s home in Benbrook, Texas, to pick up their two daughters and found the girls slain in their beds, police said Friday. Authorities say their mother, who had suffered knife wounds, faces a mental health exam. Vadym Kholodenko stopped Thursday at the home where he formerly lived to pick up Nika, 5, and 1- year- old Michela, Benbrook police Cmdr. David Babcock said. The Ukrainian- born musician found his wife, Sofya Tsygankova, in an “extreme state of distress” and discovered the dead girls. The pianist then called 911, police said. Kholodenko, a previous winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, is not a suspect, Babcock said. The couple had filed for divorce in November.
3 _ Officer convicted: A Baltimore police officer has been found guilty of second- degree assault and misconduct in office after a video appeared to show him spitting on a man in handcuffs last year. State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Sgt. Robert Messner, a 34- year veteran of the force, was sentenced Thursday to two years of probation and a $ 500 fine. Messner’s police powers were suspended Oct. 13 after a video surfaced of the arrest. Messner told the judge he has a condition that caused chewing gum to fall out of his mouth at the moment the video was filmed.
4 _ Emergency landing: An American Airlines flight carrying nearly 200 people from Chicago to Phoenix made an emergency landing Friday at the Des Moines, Iowa, airport because of smoke in the cockpit. All the passengers got off the plane safely, and officials are investigating what caused the smoke.
5 _ House explosion: A judge on Friday sentenced an Indianapolis man to life in prison without parole for his role in a 2012 house explosion that killed two people and destroyed or damaged more than 80 homes. Bob Leonard was sentenced after being convicted of murder, arson and insurance fraud charges last month. Jurors convicted Leonard on all of the 51 counts he faced. Prosecutors said surveillance video, witness testimony and DNA evidence proved he was involved in the plot with his half brother and others to use natural gas to blow up a house for $ 300,000 in insurance. His half brother, Mark Leonard, was sentenced in August to two life sentences.