Mobile home fire kills four children
Buckeye, Ariz. An early morning fire raced through a mobile home Monday, killing four young siblings. The children’s parents made it to safety along with a 2-year-old who slept with the couple.
Authorities said the father, Jose Jacobo, awoke around 3 a.m. to the smell of smoke, then ran to the kitchen and saw flames.
He was able to get his wife, Eva Arreola, and toddler out of the home, but the flames were too intense for him to get to two sons and two daughters who were in a room on the other side of the kitchen.
Sheriff’s officials identified the children as Jose, 12, Belen, 10, Giovany, 8, and Jazmin, 7.
“He was trying to run back in, but it lit up so fast,” neighbor Mark Quayle said.
Report: Boys force disabled girl into sex
Columbus, Ohio A 16-year-old disabled girl was punched and forced to engage in videotaped sexual acts with several boys in a high school auditorium as dozens of students watched, according to witnesses.
Authorities are investigating and no charges have been filed in the alleged attack last month at Mifflin High School. Four boys suspected of involvement were sent home and have not returned to class.
Also, the principal, Regina Crenshaw, was suspended and will be fired for not calling police, school officials said. And three assistant principals were suspended and will be reassigned to other schools.
The girl was forced to perform oral sex on at least two boys, according to statements from school officials, obtained by The Columbus Dispatch. Part of the alleged assault was videotaped by a student who had a camera for a school project.
School officials found the girl bleeding from the mouth. An assistant principal cautioned the girl’s father against calling 911 to avoid media attention, the statements said. The girl’s father called police. Her father said the girl is developmentally disabled. A special education teacher said the teen has a severe speech impediment.
Capitol suspect will be expelled from U.S.
Washington The man who was tackled and detained at the Capitol on Monday is an Australian citizen and will be expelled for violating the terms of his visa, a federal immigration official said Tuesday.
The man, Wen Hao Zhao, is a native of China who entered the United States legally Friday through Los Angeles International Airport, according to Dean Boyd, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration bureau.
U.S. Capitol Police officers knocked him down, detained him and blew open his luggage Monday after he stationed himself on the west plaza of the building, a suitcase on either side of him, and refused to speak or move.
The luggage contained a CD player, police said later.
The man was later transferred to the bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Boyd said. Zhao entered the country on an Australian passport under a waiver program that allows citizens of certain countries entrance without a visa, he said.
Cigarette smuggler gets 5 years in prison
El Paso, Texas The mastermind of a plot to smuggle $37 million worth of cigarettes into the United States was sentenced Monday to five years in federal prison.
Jorge Abraham, 35, pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy and trafficking in contraband cigarettes and counterfeit goods.
Abraham, a quadriplegic, also was ordered to pay nearly $6 million in restitution to Texas, California, New York, the United States and Philip Morris U.S.A. Inc.
“These criminals deprived the American people of millions of dollars owed in taxes,” U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said.
The case involved some 11,360 cases of counterfeit and contraband cigarettes. A carton of 200 counterfeit cigarettes can cost as little as $2 to produce in Asia. When smuggled into the United States, that carton can be sold for $70 or more.
Wife’s lover who lived in closet charged in death
Nashville, Tenn. A man was beaten to death after catching his wife’s lover living in a closet in their home, police said Tuesday.
Rafael DeJesus Rocha-Perez, 35, was charged with homicide in the slaying of 44-year-old Jeffrey A. Freeman over the weekend.
“From time to time, you come across a case with very unique – even bizarre – circumstances,” police spokesman Don Aaron said. “This one probably rates right up there with them.”
Freeman’s wife had allowed Rocha-Perez to live in a closet of the Freemans’ four-bedroom for about a month without her husband’s knowledge, police said. On Sunday, her husband heard Rocha-Perez snoring and discovered him, authorities said.
Freeman ordered his wife to get the man out of the house while he went for a walk, authorities said. Martha Freeman told authorities that when her husband returned, Rocha-Perez confronted him with a shotgun, forced him into a bathroom and bludgeoned him.
Limo driver busted by teens headed to prom
Winter Springs, Fla. Ten friends took a limousine to assure themselves a safe ride to their high school prom – but they ended up busting their own limo driver.
Patrick Curley, a senior at Winter Springs High School, used his cell phone to call home Saturday and reported the driver had driven through stop signs, cut off other vehicles and veered onto the wrong side of the road.
Robert Curley told his son to tell the driver to pull over, and when she stopped, the students grabbed the keys out of the ignition.
“This is unbelievable,” Robert Curley told Seminole County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers when he reported the incident. “We rented the limo so you’re obviously going to be safe.”
The students got to the prom an hour and a half late.
Christina Tomacelli, 49, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and refusing to submit to a blood-alcohol test. Deputies said they found a half-empty bottle of citrus-flavored vodka next to the driver’s seat. They said she also told them she had been drinking wine.