Lawyer: juror might have stolen opioid evidence
COLUMBUS — An Ohio defense attorney says at least one juror may have stolen oxycodone pills during a drug trial.
The Columbus Dispatch reports attorney John David Moore Jr. says jurors found his client guilty and then rushed out of the courthouse before anyone noticed the 71 opioid pills were missing.
He says his client should get a new trial or have his charges dismissed.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien and the court’s administrative judge say they’ve never heard of evidence going missing during jury deliberations. Heroin and methamphetamine used as evidence didn’t go missing.
O’Brien says that it’s premature to blame jurors for the missing pills and that their disappearance doesn’t affect the facts of the case.
The Franklin County sheriff’s office is investigating and reviewing surveillance camera footage.
Women charged for attempted murder with opioids
CANTON — Two Ohio women have been indicted criminally for what authorities say was an attempt to kill an elderly woman with opioids.
The Sheriff’s Office in Stark County, which includes Canton, has not said why they allegedly tried to kill the unidentified woman in May.
Forty-year-old Lilly Brunoni and 29-year-old Nicole Dailey, both of Canton, were arrested Wednesday after being indicted on charges that include attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and corrupting another with drugs. Brunoni also is charged with practicing medicine without a license.
The Sheriff’s Office says deputies on a well-being check found the elderly woman unresponsive May 10 and took her to a care center where she was revived with multiple doses of the opioid reversal drug naloxone.
Court records don’t indicate if the women have attorneys.
Life sentence for child’s killer
TOLEDO — A woman found guilty of aggravated murder in the Ohio death of a badly abused 4-year-old girl has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Blade reports 25-year-old Bridgett White was sentenced Thursday in a Lucas County court. The Toledo woman entered Alford pleas last month in the Nov. 22 death of Aaliyah Smith. That means she didn’t admit to the charges but acknowledged there was evidence to convict her. She also was found guilty of child endangering.
A message seeking comment was left for White’s attorney.
A coroner says the child’s death was caused by chronic abuse and neglect. Prosecutors say she was covered in injuries and had been burned and struck.
Authorities say White cared for the girl while her father worked.
Coroner IDs man shot by police
DAYTON — A suspect in a drug deal who authorities say struck a police officer with his car while fleeing and was shot multiple times by two officers before crashing his car and dying at a hospital has been identified.
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office on Thursday identified the man as 25-year-old Kesharn Burney, of Dayton.
County Sheriff Phil Plummer has said undercover law enforcement officers witnessed a drug deal Wednesday in the Dayton suburb of Harrison Township. Plummer said officers approached the vehicles where the transaction happened, and the suspected dealer fled, striking a Trotwood police officer with his car.
The sheriff says a deputy and the Trotwood officer then fired at the suspect.
Plummer says the man crashed his vehicle and died at a hospital.
Dayton police are investigating.
Driver dies after being shot on I-75
CINCINNATI — Police say the driver who was hospitalized after he was shot on an Ohio highway has died.
Cincinnati police say 28-year-old Lian Cun Nung died Wednesday after he was shot while driving down a ramp toward southbound lanes of Interstate 75 in Cincinnati.
Police say Nung was driving with his wife in the passenger seat Tuesday around 5 p.m. when a bullet shattered the driver’s side window.
Nung was struck, and their vehicle hit another car. Police say no one else was seriously hurt.
Police are still searching for information on the shooting.
Nung’s wife, Sian Par, tells WCPO-TV he was a loving father of three young children.
Rig count increases to 958
HOUSTON — The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. increased by eight this week to 958.
A year ago, just 463 rigs were active.
Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes said Friday that 766 rigs sought oil and 192 explored for natural gas this week.
Among major oil- and gas-producing states, New Mexico gained four rigs, Oklahoma increased by three and Louisiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Wyoming each gained one.
Texas declined by one rig.
Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Utah were all unchanged.
The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in May of 2016 at 404.
Woman sentenced in bank robberies in 3 states
WHEELING, W.Va. — A West Virginia woman has been sentenced to more than four years in prison for robbing banks in three states.
Thirty-one-year-old Christine Joy Martin of Davisville was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Wheeling.
She pleaded guilty in April to robbing banks last year in Marion County, West Virginia; Washington County, Pennsylvania, and Athens County, Ohio.
The three unarmed robberies totaled $4,500.
