Teenager pleads guilty to starting fire that killed parents

By Calvin Palmer

A New Jersey teenager pleaded guilty yesterday to killing his parents by starting a fire at the family home.

Jason Henry, of Glassboro, pleaded guilty at the state Superior Court in Woodbury to two counts of aggravated manslaughter.  In return, prosecutors will recommend that he receive a 20-year sentence on each count.

Henry was 16, and a sophomore at Glassboro High School, when he started the fire on February 13, 2007. His mother, 39-year-old Michelle Henry, and his father, 41-year-old Stephen Edwards, died from burn injuries.

The case was transferred to adult court for prosecution.

A few days before the fatal blaze, Henry’s mother told him that she was giving up her six-year battle with leukemia. Henry had spent much of his adolescence taking care of her, family friends said.

Henry confessed the next day to starting the fire  and told police he believed his parents would escape the flames. He said he thought the fire would allow the family to collect insurance money to pay for mounting medical bills.

When Jeffrey Wintner, Henry’s public defender, asked why Henry set the house on fire, Henry said: “To get the insurance money. My mother had cancer, and my father was out of a job.”

Henry’s father was a tractor-trailer driver who was out of work because of back ailments, according to family members. Michelle Henry had undergone years of chemotherapy and other treatments, and money was becoming scarce.

Jason Henry said he used gasoline as an accelerant, explaining: “I poured it on a wood-burning stove,” which he said contained hot embers.

One issue of contention in the case was whether Henry had doused his parents’ bedroom with gasoline. Henry earlier told investigators that he had poured it around his bed, in the basement, and then had thrown the gas can on the wood stove.

Police, however, said the accelerant was spread in his parents’ bedroom, the living room, and a computer room.

At the prosecutor’s request, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives re-created the fire in its laboratory in Rockville, Maryland, to look for burn patterns.

Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton praised the investigative work of his arson unit, the police and the ATF.

“The ATF devoted considerable time and resources to a re-creation of a portion of the fire-engulfed house, which could have been a significant element of proof at trial,” he said in a prepared statement.

The report has not been released, and Henry was not asked to elaborate yesterday on whether he poured gasoline elsewhere in the house.

He acknowledged the arson was a reckless act that led to his parents’ deaths, an admission that established the basis for two aggravated manslaughter charges.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 24.

[Based on reports by newsday.com and The Philadelphia Inquirer.]

School-run woman faces charges after breast-feeding while driving

By Calvin Palmer

A woman in Ohio was spotted breast-feeding a child and talking on a cell phone while driving a vehicle.

A male motorist called police in the Dayton suburb of Kettering after he saw the woman drop a number of children off at a school on Thursday morning, said police officer Michael Burke.

The recording of the motorist’s non-emergency call was released yesterday.

“I’m following right behind her right now on Far Hills Avenue,” the caller said as he spoke to a Kettering dispatcher.

“I tried to say something to her. She literally has the little girl on the steering wheel and I said, ‘I can’t believe you have that kid in your lap and she said, ‘You want to pop your titty out and breastfeed this kid?’ That’s what she said to me. I’m like, ‘You can feed your kid when you stop.’ It’s like wet out here. It’s full of traffic. It’s ridiculous. She’s got like three other kids in the car.”

The motorist took down the license plate number of the Honda minivan and authorities used it to trace the woman.

Genine Compton, 39, of Harrison Township, admitted she breast-fed her child and also told police that she does not deprive her child when the child is hungry, Burke said.

She was charged with a first-degree misdemeanor of child endangering and minor misdemeanor for unlawfully restraining her child, which Burke believes was under the age of two.

“Our issue is not the fact that this woman was breast-feeding in public,” Burke said. He added that Compton would have been charged even if the child was just sitting on her lap. “Our issue is that she created the condition that placed her child’s health and safety at risk.”

Compton faces up to 180 days in jail and a $1,800 fine if convicted of the first-degree misdemeanor.

[Based on reports by the Dayton Daily News and Associated Press.]

Bodies of three British tourists found in French Alps

By Calvin Palmer

The bodies of three British tourists have been recovered in the French Alps. One of them, British teacher Christopher Hilton, had been missing for seven months.

Hilton, 32, of Stalybridge, Cheshire, disappeared after going for a solo hike on July 27 last year.

The other two tourists, Richard Ryan, 27, and Christopher Lockwood, 28, died when they fell down a cliff in the early hours of Thursday morning after trying to take a short cut back to their chalet from a bar where they had been drinking.

The bodies of Ryan and Lockwood, who were both from the Leeds area, were found in the “Black Coombe” ravine yesterday, near the Deux Alpes ski station east of Grenoble, according to French rescuers.

Hilton’s body was found by climbers partially covered in ice and snow on a ledge in the Oisans range of the central French Alps three days ago. He had fallen at least 100 meters, according to Grenoble Mountain Rescue.

He was holidaying with his parents Janet and Stephen at a camp site in Bourg d’Oisans, near Grenoble, when he went missing.

He told them he was going for a solo hike but never returned.

Hilton taught science at Littlemoss High School, Droylsden, where he was a popular and dedicated teacher.

In his spare time, he worked as a volunteer for Hyde United football club.

Club director Tony Beard today posted a tribute to his friend and colleague on the club’s Web site.

The statement read:  “Chris was popular wherever he went. He worked tirelessly for our club and has been sorely missed these last few months.

“He had many friends at Hyde United and in non league football and today is a very sad day indeed for all concerned.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to his parents, Janet and Stephen, and other members of his family and friends at this difficult time.”

A minute’s silence was observed before today’s game with AFC Telford.

[Based on reports by The Times and BBC News.]

Florida man kills two students and wounds three others

By Calvin Palmer

A 60-year-old man killed two Chilean students and wounded three others, firing through a window at their house in a Florida beach town.

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office was still trying to determine the motive for Dannie Baker shooting the victims at Miramar Beach in northern Florida early Thursday.

“There were no indicators, no complaints of bad noise or something” said Tammy Godwin, executive assistant to the sheriff.

The students killed were killed as Nicolas Corp, 23, and Racine Balbontin, 22. The wounded were Sebastian Arizaga, 27; Francisco Cofre, 25; and David Bilbao, 21.

Bilbao was released from the hospital, but the other two were still undergoing treatment yesterday.

Godwin said the attack occurred at around 2:00 a.m. Thursday. She said Baker, who is in custody, did not enter the students’ house but shot at them through a window with a rifle.

Bilbao told his brother he and the other students  were sitting around a kitchen table talking and cooking when they were surprised by a blast and the sound of breaking glass.

“My brother thought something had exploded in the oven, and never imagined it was a gunshot until about the third shot when he was hit in the arm,” Mario Bilbao told a Chilean radio station.

“My brother threw himself on the floor and later tried to help one of his friends, but regrettably, he told me, it was too late. It’s going to be very difficult for him to get over this,” he said.

[Based on a report by AFP news agency.]