No jail time for vet who brandished rifle at party
By Ashley Meeks ameeks@lcsun-news.com
Posted: 01/13/2012 11:32:45 PM MST
LAS CRUCES - A combat veteran who brandished an assault rifle at a group of partygoers last April - with his friend, a sheriff's deputy, in his back seat - will not serve any additional jail time, a state District Court Judge ruled Friday.
New Mexico State University psychology student Joshua Sanchez, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon under a plea agreement with the district attorney's office.
Judge Douglas Driggers could have sentenced Sanchez to 4 1/2 years in prison, thousands in fines and parole had Sanchez been convicted of the original charges.
Instead, Sanchez received 18 months supervised probation and will have to complete 80 hours community service, drug and alcohol screening, counseling and a yearlong anger management program.
Defense attorney Matt Madrid of Las Cruces successfully argued that Sanchez - a decorated member of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division who served two deployments to Iraq - was just one of many returning veterans who make "major mistakes" but still have a chance to turn their life around.
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
Nicholas Horner's trial on hold
Jury selection in Pa. soldier's double-murder trial halted after insanity ruling appealed
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: January 14, 2012
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered a halt to jury selection in the death penalty trial of an Iraq war veteran accused of having killed two people during the robbery of a sandwich shop.
Justice Seamus McCaffery issued a one-paragraph ordered late Friday afternoon halting the Blair County proceedings in the trial of 31-year-old Nicholas Horner.
Dickey contends that his client was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and couldn't tell right from wrong when he killed a clerk and bystander during a 2009 robbery at an Altoona Subway restaurant.
read more here
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: January 14, 2012
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered a halt to jury selection in the death penalty trial of an Iraq war veteran accused of having killed two people during the robbery of a sandwich shop.
Justice Seamus McCaffery issued a one-paragraph ordered late Friday afternoon halting the Blair County proceedings in the trial of 31-year-old Nicholas Horner.
Dickey contends that his client was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and couldn't tell right from wrong when he killed a clerk and bystander during a 2009 robbery at an Altoona Subway restaurant.
read more here
Seabees help save family in dramatic rescue on Highway 101
Seabees help save family in dramatic rescue on Highway 101
By Gretchen Wenner
Posted January 13, 2012
"It's very fortunate they came along when they did," said California Highway Patrol Officer Jeanne Malone. "They performed a wonderful service for us."
The accident occurred on Highway 101 around 2:40 p.m. when a northbound big rig hauling gravel hit the rear of the BMW, which also was headed north, the patrol reported. The big rig broke through bridge rails and plunged into the creek below, where it burst into flames. The 48-year-old driver, later identified as Charles Arthur Allison Jr. of Grover Beach, died at the scene.
The BMW, meanwhile, was stuck in the center railing of the Nojoqui Creek bridge, "precariously hanging over the edge," according to the patrol report. The 36-year-old driver, Kelli Lynne Groves of San Juan Capistrano, was in the car with her daughters, ages 10 and 10 weeks.
The Seabees — Petty Officers Michael McCracken, Frankie Cruz, Shawn Legg, Benjamin Mead and James Winters and Constructionman Clinton Roberts of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 and the 31st Seabee Readiness Group — were heading back to Port Hueneme when they came on the scene. They offered to help with controlling traffic or in any other way.
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By Gretchen Wenner
Posted January 13, 2012
PHOTO BY LEAH THOMPSON, AP PHOTO / THE SANTA MARIA TIMESSix Seabees and a forklift helped rescue a woman and her two daughters trapped in a smashed BMW that was on the verge of plummeting about 75 feet off a bridge after a fatal accident south of Buellton on Thursday.
A Navy forklift car steadies a vehicle teetering off a bridge on northbound Highway 101 as Santa Barbara County firefighters attach ropes and chains to pull the vehicle back onto the roadway near Buellton.
"It's very fortunate they came along when they did," said California Highway Patrol Officer Jeanne Malone. "They performed a wonderful service for us."
The accident occurred on Highway 101 around 2:40 p.m. when a northbound big rig hauling gravel hit the rear of the BMW, which also was headed north, the patrol reported. The big rig broke through bridge rails and plunged into the creek below, where it burst into flames. The 48-year-old driver, later identified as Charles Arthur Allison Jr. of Grover Beach, died at the scene.
The BMW, meanwhile, was stuck in the center railing of the Nojoqui Creek bridge, "precariously hanging over the edge," according to the patrol report. The 36-year-old driver, Kelli Lynne Groves of San Juan Capistrano, was in the car with her daughters, ages 10 and 10 weeks.
The Seabees — Petty Officers Michael McCracken, Frankie Cruz, Shawn Legg, Benjamin Mead and James Winters and Constructionman Clinton Roberts of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 and the 31st Seabee Readiness Group — were heading back to Port Hueneme when they came on the scene. They offered to help with controlling traffic or in any other way.
read more here
Video shows officer beating 66-year-old man suffering from dementia
Video shows officer beating 66-year-old man suffering from dementia
MELBOURNE, Fla. — WFTV obtained dash camera video of a violent police beating in Melbourne.
The video shows an officer attacking a 66–year-old man who WFTV learned is suffering from dementia.
go here for video
MELBOURNE, Fla. — WFTV obtained dash camera video of a violent police beating in Melbourne.
The video shows an officer attacking a 66–year-old man who WFTV learned is suffering from dementia.
go here for video
Two Iraq War Movies Not to Miss, both about PTSD
Two Iraq War Movies Not to Miss
Posted: 1/12/12
Peter Van Buren
Fmr. State Department Iraq PRT Leader
A Marine's Guide to Fishing - Trailer from Nicholas Brennan on Vimeo.
Posted: 1/12/12
Peter Van Buren
Fmr. State Department Iraq PRT Leader
James Spione's Incident in New Baghdad, now on the shortlist for an Academy Award nomination this year as best documentary, tells the story of Army Specialist Ethan McCord's dramatic first-hand experiences on the scene. Specialist McCord was an infantryman sent to the site of the massacre, where he encountered two Iraqi children, horribly wounded but still alive. McCord killed no one, never even fired his weapon that day, but found himself forever changed by what he saw among the dead and dying. Anger, confusion and guilt combined; call it Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD).
Nick Brennan's A Marines Guide to Fishing is a second important Iraq War film to see. Fictional as opposed to Incident's documentary format, Brennan told me in an interview that "I do think this story is stronger and unique as a work of fiction because it provides for a certain level of separation and dramatization that you don't get in documentary work, as well as allowing me to incorporate the stories of dozens of vets I met with during research." The film stars Matthew Pennington, an Iraq vet himself in a first acting role. Pennington is a victim of PTSD, seeking understanding by re-experiencing as an actor his own trauma.
read more here
A Marine's Guide to Fishing - Trailer from Nicholas Brennan on Vimeo.
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