Philadelphia’s marijuana supply was stemmed — at least temporarily — thanks to a sting by narcotics officials in Montgomery County.

“Operation Weed Whacker” was set up to remove at least $1 million in high-grade grass from the region’s marijuana black market by shutting down a group of dealers who brought about 3,670 pounds of pot into the area over the last year, according to Philly.com.

The yearlong wiretap investigation led to the arrests of brothers Dennis and Jeffrey Frederick, and Charles Sadrin of Lincoln, Calif. They face charges of manufacture, delivery and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, criminal conspiracy and related offenses, the Delco Times reported.

Five others were also charged in what Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman called one of the biggest drug busts in Montgomery County history.

“Over the course of 15 to 16 months, through both evidence we’ve gathered and analysis of freight records, we’ve been able to track approximately 3,673 pounds of marijuana being shipped from California to southeast Pennsylvania,” she said, according to TheReporterOnline.com. “Each of those is sold in Pennsylvania for $4,000 a pound. We’re talking about an organization that — in less than a year and a half — has moved $14.5 million. That is massive.”

Attorneys for the defendants thought officials spent a lot of effort for pot, a substance that is getting growing support for legalizaton from Americans.

“This is not about cocaine, it’s not about crack, heroin or all of the other very addictive drugs. It’s about pot,” said defense attorney Hope Lefeber, who represents Dennis Frederick, told MyFoxPhilly.com.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia judge has ordered that a couple who believe in faith healing over medicine be held without bail on third-degree murder charges in the April death of their 8-month-old son.

Herbert and Catherine Schaible (SHY’-bul) are charged in the death of their baby, Brandon. They’d been convicted of involuntary manslaughter after another child, 2-year-old Kent, died in 2009. Prosecutors say they prayed over Brandon for two weeks before he died, and never called a doctor.

At a bail hearing Friday, Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner ordered them held without bail. He says they’re a flight risk because there could be a community of like-minded people around the world who might harbor them.

The couple’s attorney says they’ve never missed a court date and surrendered willingly. Their seven surviving children are in foster care.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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OGDEN, Utah — A Utah Army veteran charged with killing a police officer and wounding five others in a shootout during a marijuana raid was found hanging dead in his cell early Friday.

With a trial no longer a possibility, authorities and the father of suspect Matthew David Stewart renewed a fierce debate about what happened the night of the raid that yielded just 13 pot plants.

Police strongly refuted the previous claims of the 39-year-old Stewart that he didn’t know who was breaking into his home. Stewart’s father, Michael Stewart, insists his son was only defending himself from what he thought was a robbery.

While awaiting trial, Matthew David Stewart was found hanging from a bed sheet during a routine cell check just before 1 a.m. Friday, Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said at a news conference.

The county has referred the investigation into the death to an outside agency, and another county attorney will review it.

Michael Stewart said he doesn’t believe foul play was involved, but he accused jail officials of making his son’s life miserable and leaving his mental illness untreated.

Weber County Sheriff Terry Thompson denied those allegations Friday.

Michael Stewart said his son was despondent over a judge’s recent refusal to hold a hearing on what the family believes was an illegally obtained search warrant.

“I think he gave up,” Michael Stewart said about his son’s death. “He was depressed.”

Stewart was accused of killing strike force agent Jared Francom and wounding five other officers when authorities descended on his Ogden home during the January 2012 raid. He could have faced the death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder.

He also faced charges of attempted aggravated murder and marijuana cultivation.

Investigators have said they received a tip from Stewart’s ex-girlfriend that he was growing marijuana in the home about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. Officers have said they visited weeks beforehand when no one was home and believed they could see equipment for growing marijuana in the basement.

Authorities obtained a search warrant for a drug raid on Jan. 4, 2012.

Stewart has maintained he never heard the officers identify themselves and believed he was being robbed when they broke open his door with a ramming device.

Police said Stewart had not responded to a knock at the door and waited for police to enter before firing into a hallway from his bedroom.

During the gun fight, Stewart suffered several gunshot wounds and was hospitalized for nearly a month.

Smith used Friday’s news conference to detail the police version of what happened that night.

“There has been a lot of noise about Mr. Stewart believing that these were intruders into his home, that he didn’t know they were police,” said Smith, speaking sternly at a podium. “The evidence is very clear that he knew exactly who he was shooting at.”

Smith said he felt free to discuss the details of the case now that there will be no trial.

The undercover officers have testified they wore jackets that said “police” on the back. In addition, Stewart was given ample opportunity to open a side door, they said.

Officers had cleared all but one room in the house when two of them walked into a bedroom hallway. Stewart fired the first of 31 shots – 17 of which hit officers, Smith said.

One officer was struck in the face. Another ducked into a bathroom and was trapped, as Francom tried to cover for him, Smith said.

Francom was struck seven times by shot fired from Stewart’s 9 mm gun, including once when he was already down, Smith said.

Ballistic reports show that every bullet that hit officers came from Stewart’s gun, the prosecutor said.

Stewart’s father said he doesn’t trust the official reports or the officers’ accounts. He believes some of the officers shot others in the chaos of a darkened house.

“He was defending himself,” Michael Stewart said of his son. “I’m not criticizing all police. There are good ones, but none will come forward in this case to tell the truth.”

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An eastern Pennsylvania woman who fatally stabbed her fiance on their wedding day – and then apparently could not comprehend that he had died – was convicted of first-degree murder on Thursday.

Jurors found Na Cola Franklin, 32, guilty after deliberating about three hours in Lehigh County Court. She could get life in prison when she is sentenced July 16. Her attorney said an appeal is likely.

Prosecutors say Franklin and 36-year-old Billy Brewster got into the deadly argument on Aug. 11 around 2 a.m. in their Whitehall Township apartment. They were scheduled to be married at 10 a.m. in neighboring Allentown.

At her arraignment that night, Franklin appeared distraught and confused to learn Brewster was dead, telling the judge, “You got to check again!”

Defense attorney John Waldron told jurors during the trial this week that Brewster had come home drunk that night after an impromptu bachelor party. Brewster attacked Franklin and then tried to leave with the couple’s 9-month-old son, Waldron said.

Waldron argued Franklin killed the groom-to-be after grabbing a knife to protect her child. He had pushed for a voluntary manslaughter conviction, which carries a lighter sentence.

But prosecutors, who said the child was not in danger, sought a first-degree murder conviction. First Assistant District Attorney Steven Luksa said Thursday that he hopes the verdict will bring some comfort to Brewster’s family, according to the Express-Times of Easton.

On the day of the planned wedding, neighbor Steve Engel said the pastor who was supposed to marry the couple came looking for them at the apartment building. Distraught people in suits and dresses – presumably ceremony guests – then began showing up throughout the day, Engel said.

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PHOENIX — As jurors in Jodi Arias’ murder trial filed one by one from the courtroom after a dramatic five months of gut-wrenching testimony and gruesome photographs, three women on the panel cried and one looked to the victim’s family, mouthing the word, “Sorry.”

The silent gesture toward the loved ones of Travis Alexander offered a glimpse into what was likely a tense few days inside the deliberations room as the jury finally determined it could not agree on whether to sentence Arias to life in prison or execution for murdering her boyfriend.

After about 13 hours of deliberations over three days, the panel gave up.

Judge Sherry Stephens gave a heavy sigh as she announced a mistrial in the penalty phase of the case Thursday. A conference with the judge and attorneys was set for June 20 to determine how both sides want to proceed. In the interim, Stephens set a July 18 retrial date, sending prosecutors back to the drawing board to rehash the shocking case and details of sex and lies to another 12 people.

“This was not your typical trial,” Stephens told jurors. “You were asked to perform some very difficult duties.”

Jurors declined to comment and left the courthouse. But on Friday jury foreman William Zervakos told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that Arias’ testimony didn’t do her any good.

“I think 18 days hurt her. I think she was not a good witness,” he said.

“We’re charged with going in and presuming innocence, right? But she was on the stand for so long, there were so many contradicting stories.”

Zervakos said with the prosecutor’s aggressive style, that length of time testifying “would be difficult for anybody. I don’t think I’d want to sit on the stand for 18 days.”

Zervakos said he believed Alexander mentally and verbally abused Arias.

“Is that an excuse? Of course not. Does it factor in the decision that we make? It has to,” he said.

The mistrial set the stage for a whole new proceeding to determine whether the 32-year-old former waitress should get a life sentence or the death penalty for murdering Alexander five years ago. Arias stabbed and slashed him nearly 30 times, slit his throat slit from ear to ear and shot him in the forehead in what prosecutors described as a jealous rage after the victim wanted to end their affair and planned to head off on a trip to Mexico with another woman.

Prosecutors have the option to take the death penalty off the table, in which case a new trial wouldn’t be necessary and the judge would determine whether to sentence Arias to spend her entire life behind bars or life with the possibility of release after 25 years. Should the state decide to seek death again, jury selection alone could take weeks, given the difficulty of seating an impartial panel in a case that has attracted global attention.

The guilty verdict of first-degree murder would stand, leaving the new panel only tasked with sentencing Arias. However, former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said the case could drag on for several months as the new jury reviews evidence and hears opening statements, closing arguments and witness testimony in a “Cliffs Notes” version of the trial.

If the second jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, the judge would then sentence Arias to one of the life-in-prison options. The judge cannot sentence Arias to death.

Arias, who first said she wanted to die but later changed her mind and pleaded with the jury for mercy, looked visibly upset about the mistrial and sobbed in the courtroom before it was announced. Her family didn’t attend Thursday but has been present for much of the trial.

Alexander’s family member cried as they left the courtroom without commenting.

Jurors began deliberating Arias’ sentence Tuesday and first reported they had failed to reach a unanimous decision the next day. Stephens instructed them to keep trying.

The same jury on May 8 found Arias guilty of murder in Alexander’s June 4, 2008 death at his suburban Phoenix home.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery thanked the panel in a statement after the mistrial was announced, and noted prosecutor Juan Martinez would have no comment given the pending proceedings ahead.

“We will assess, based upon available information, what the next steps will be,” Montgomery said, “and we will proceed with the intent to retry the penalty phase.”

For now, Arias will remain in the Maricopa County jail system, where she has spent the past five years. Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday she will be confined to her cell 23 hours a day and not be allowed to give anymore media interviews.

The mistrial came two days after Arias spoke to jurors and pleaded for her life. She said she “lacked perspective” when she told a local reporter after her conviction that she preferred execution to spending the rest of her days in prison.

That same night, Arias gave a series of media interviews from jail, telling reporters about her many fights with her legal team and her belief that she “deserves a second chance at freedom someday.”

Arias contends she killed Alexander in self-defense when he became enraged after a day of sex, forcing her to fight for her life.

Her case became a sensation from the beginning as she gave a series of jailhouse interviews following her 2008 arrest in which first she blamed the killing on armed, masked intruders.

Testimony in the trial began in January as the case soon provided endless amounts of cable TV and tabloid fodder, including a recorded phone sex call between Arias and the victim, nude photos, bloody crime-scene pictures and a defendant who described her life story in intimate detail over 18 days on the witness stand.

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A driver said he thought he was about to die when an Interstate 5 bridge span collapsed in Washington state, plunging his pickup and another car into the Skagit River below.

Dan Sligh, his wife and another motorist found themselves waist-deep in water when the freeway crumbled moments after the bridge was clipped by an oversized truck, he told NBC affiliate KING5 of Seattle.

State officials said the rescue had been “amazing” and warned of major traffic disruption following the complete closure of the section of the road, near Mount Vernon.

Sligh, a Command Master Chief Petty Officer with the U.S. Navy, said the accident was “like a Hollywood movie unfolding in front of your eyes – up close and personal.”

He said he managed to release his seat belt and climb out of his mangled truck to shallower water, despite fearing he had dislocated his shoulder.

His wife also escaped, and was being kept in the Skagit Valley hospital where she was being treated for internal bleeding.

“I thought we were done,” Sligh told KING5 outside the hospital late Thursday. “When I look at all the carnage, all the metal, I assumed that was it at that point. But here we stand.

The couple waited 90 minutes on the roof of pickup awaiting rescue, he said, adding that the other driver was not seriously injured.

“I’m OK. I’m beat up. I feel like I rode a rodeo bull or something.”

I-5 is the main freeway that runs up and down the West Coast between the Canadian and Mexican borders, and traffic was significantly backed up in both directions overnight.

AP Photo/seattlepi.com, Joshua Trujillo

People offer spontaneous prayer after an Interstate 5 bridge collapsed over the Skagit River between Mt. Vernon and Burlington, Wash. on Thursday.

In a statement, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said an investigation has been launched “to confirm” witness reports that an oversized truck struck the metal arches that cover traffic crossing the bridge.

“I’m thankful there were no fatalities,” the statement added. “This is an opportunity for us to pull together to show strength of character and patience and good citizenship as we deal with this disruption.”

The 1,112-foot steel truss bridge, built in 1955, was described by the Washington State Department of Transportation, after an inspection in August 2010, as “somewhat better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is.”

Diversions have been set up and plans are already underway to install a replacement span, said Bart Treece, a spokesman for the department, describing the lack of more serous injuries as “amazing”.

The section of the freeway carries 71,000 vehicles a day, he said, warning significant delays were likely over the Memorial Weekend.

“If you can reduce trips or take another route, that would help,” he said.

The minimum vertical clearance on the bridge (distance from the road to something a truck can bump into) is 14.5 feet. The standard height is 16 feet.

Inslee’s statement added: “We will be involved in a vigorous and diligent effort to get traffic flowing again through the Skagit bridge corridor and I will issue an emergency proclamation [Friday] to make sure we have the resources to do so as quickly as possible.

State inspection reports submitted to the Federal Highway Administration were reviewed by NBC News. That overall evaluation of the structural condition on the bridge corresponds to a score of 5 on a scale from 0 (worst) to 9 (best).

The bridge received identical scores on inspections in 2010, 2008 and 2006, and is on a schedule for inspection every 24 months, as generally required by federal regulations. State officials said Thursday evening they were working to make public a copy of the latest inspection report, presumably from 2012.

The bridge was of a “fracture critical” design, as are 18,000 bridges nationwide, meaning it could collapse if even one part failed.

Even after the bridge collapse that killed 13 people in Minneapolis in 2007, a haphazard system of inspections continued, with federal authorities choosing not to require re-inspection of all the fracture-critical bridges.

In a survey of every state by msnbc.com in 2008, only six states and the District of Columbia said they began to recheck all their fracture-critical bridges.

Officials in Washington state, like in most states, said they performed special inspections of only their few dozen bridges of the particular deck-truss design used in Minneapolis.

The bridge that fell Thursday did go on to receive its regular inspections in 2008 and 2010, according to the federal records, called the National Bridge Inventory.

NBC News’ Andrew Rafferty and Justin Kirschner contributed to this report.

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John Moore / Getty Images

U.S. Border Patrol agent Ryan Bell looks for drug smugglers on the bank of the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border on May 21, near Hidalgo, Texas.

John Moore / Getty Images

Cars drive from Matomoros, Mexico, left, across the U.S.-Mexico border at the Rio Grande on May 21, into Brownsville, Texas. The area is active for legal international commerce as well as drug smugglers bringing their product north from Mexico into the United States.

John Moore / Getty Images

A U.S. Border Patrol agent searches for drug smugglers near the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border on May 21, near Hidalgo Texas.

John Moore / Getty Images

Mexican Army troops stand guard on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border on May 21, near McAllen, Texas.

John Moore / Getty Images

The Mexican border town of Matomoros is seen on the Rio Grande across the U.S.-Mexico border on May 21, near Brownsville, Texas.

John Moore / Getty Images

A suspected drug smuggling scout paddles his raft back across the Rio Grande into Mexico from the U.S. side of the border on May 21, near Hidalgo Texas.

John Moore / Getty Images

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FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. — Authorities say two men have been charged in six killings, including a toddler and unborn baby, near the Tennessee-Alabama border last fall during a dispute over drug dealing.

Lincoln County Sheriff Murray Blackwelder announced on Thursday that 36-year-old Henry Burrell, of Fayetteville, Tenn., and 35-year-old Zakkawanda Moss, of New Market, Ala., are charged with six counts each of first-degree murder. The two men are jailed in Alabama on unrelated charges.

Officials say three women, a man, toddler and unborn baby were slain last October.

According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Burrell and Moss were drug dealers who worked with one of the victims, Warren Crutcher. Officials believe the pair decided Crutcher was ripping them off, and the killings occurred while Burrell and Moss were looking for drugs and money.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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