Tonch Weldon, 39, was charged with fatally shooting Amy Gephart in front of his wife

An Iowa County jury convicted a rural Blairstown man of first-degree murder Tuesday in the fatal 2009 shooting of a woman who was involved in a relationship with the man and his wife.

Tonch Weldon, 39, was charged with fatally shooting Amy Gephart in front of his wife, Amanda, after she threatened to leave him for Gephart. Tonch Weldon then shot himself.



The jury deliberated the case for almost five days following a weeklong trial that wrapped up July 20.

Weldon was emotional during the trial and cried at times but was nearly emotionless as the verdict was read and as deputies walked him back to jail, The Gazette reported.

Weldon faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Sentencing was set for Aug. 15 in Iowa County District Court in Marengo.

During the trial, Amanda Weldon testified her husband shot Gephart on June 7, 2009, after she threatened to leave him. She said the couple had an open marriage and Gephart lived with them and was their sexual partner until she fell in love with Gephart. The women decided to leave Weldon and after arguing that day, Amada Weldon testified her husband shot Gephart and then turned the gun on himself.

Prosecutors argued the shooting was deliberate and premeditated. The defense claimed the shooting was a "crime of passion."

"Amy was our only child and we had 35 wonderful years with her," her parents, Jim and Nancy Gephart, said in a statement after the verdict.

Murder charges have been filed against three people in the shooting death of a San Diego police officer

Murder charges have been filed against three people in the shooting death of a San Diego police officer, Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis announced Tuesday.

Alex Charfauros, 26, Melissa Ortiz, 21, and Patrick Luangrath, 19, are charged in the death of Officer Chris Wilson, 50, a 17-year veteran of the police department.

Wilson was fatally shot on Oct. 27, 2010 as police attempted to storm an apartment in the Paradise Hills neighborhood in search of a possible probation violator.

The three are set to be arraigned Tuesday in San Diego County Superior Court. Each faces a variety of charges, including murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to obstruct justice and gun-related violations, Dumanis said.

"Officer Wilson's death shook the community and reminded us all about the daily dangers faced by law enforcement in San Diego," Dumanis said.

Two people were found dead inside the apartment, including the person believed to have fired the fatal shot at Wilson. Three others were arrested at the apartment.

Norway killer insane

The lawyer of a Norwegian who killed at least 76 people in a bombing and a shooting spree said on Tuesday his client appeared to be a madman. “This whole case indicated that he is insane,” Geir Lippestad said of Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to “atrocious but necessary”


actions, but denies he is a criminal.
The lawyer said it was too early to say if Breivik would plead insanity at his trial, expected to be a year away.

Lippestad said Breivik had stated he belonged to an anti-Islam network that has two cells in Norway and more abroad. Norwegian police and researchers have cast doubt on whether such an organisation exists.

Police believe Breivik probably acted alone in staging his bloody assaults, which have united Norwegians in revulsion.

Justice Minister Knut Storberget hailed “fantastic” police work after the attacks, deflecting criticisms that police had reacted too slowly to the shooting massacre. “It is very important that we have an open and critical approach...but there is a time for everything,” Storberget told reporters after talks with Oslo’s police chief.

An armed SWAT team took more than an hour to reach Utoeya island, where Breivik was coolly shooting terrified youngsters at a ruling Labour Party youth camp. He killed 68 there and eight in an earlier bombing of Oslo’s government district.

Storberget also denied police had ignored threats posed by right-wing zealots in Norway. “I reject suggestions that we have not had the far-right under the microscope,” he said.

Many Norwegians seem to agree the police do not deserve opprobrium for their response. At a march of more than 100,000 in Oslo on Monday night, people applauded rescue workers.


UK group admits links with killer


After initial denial, the far-right English Defence League (EDL) has admitted that Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik had links to the group.

Breivik reportedly met leaders of the EDL in March last year when he came to London for the visit of Geert Wilders, the Dutch right-wing politician.

Daryl Hobson, who organises EDL demonstrations, said Breivik had met members of the group.

Hobson said in an online posting: “He had about 150 EDL on his list ... barring one or two doubt the rest of us ever met him, altho [sic] he did come over for one of our demo [sic] in 2010 ... but what he did was wrong. RIP to all who died as a result of his actions.”

Scotland Yard was investigating Breivik’s claims that he began his deadly “crusade” after being recruited to a secret society in London, and that he was guided by an English “mentor.”

Prime Minister David Cameron said Breivik's claims were being taken “extremely seriously.”

 

Restaurant argument led to Richmond killing, police say

An argument in a restaurant led to a fatal shooting on Saturday, Richmond police say, not the tension between neighborhood gangs that resulted in several killings in the city this month.
Trouble began before 10 p.m., police said, in a restaurant on 23rd Street that advertises live music on weekends.
The parties involved apparently took their dispute outside.
"It does appear that it began inside a restaurant," Lt. Bisa French said. "We are still investigating what exactly happened."
A few minutes before 10, the department's acoustical gunshot detection technology directed patrol officers to 24th Street and Exchange Place, a short distance from the restaurant.
They found a 20-year-old man dead on the street, and a 29-year-old man who was critically wounded. Police said they expect the wounded man to survive.
The Contra Costa Coroner's Office had not conclusively identified the dead man as of Monday.
While police say that one victim was a member of a street gang in San Rafael, police say the conflict preceding the violence and the victims involved do not suggest that Saturday's killing extended a pattern of retaliatory shootings plaguing flatland neighborhoods this month.
Those shootings, between gangs in North Richmond and the Iron Triangle neighborhood, have claimed victims with no direct involvement in the feud who happened to walk or drive in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time.
The city hasinvestigated nine homicides so far in July, and 21 total this year. Unincorporated North Richmond also had one homicide this month.
Richmond police, the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney formed a task force last week to investigate and stop the feud.

 

slaughter in the Bar Sabino Gordo

 slaughter in the Bar Sabino Gordo, becomes the worst in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, showing that the state lives an intense war between cartels fighting for the important place of drugs. The figures are shocking slaughter, since 27 people were killed, seven injured, and eight clients were raised by the armed group. However, the authorities of Nuevo Leon only accepted 20 people died in the attack, said they know the situation of people who were raised . It also ensures that everything was a fight between rival drug, mentioning Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel

captured Mexican crime boss said his gang purchased weapons in the United States and smuggled them across the Rio Grande river,

according to testimony released Tuesday by Mexican authorities.

Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, one of the founders and leaders of the feared Zetas drug cartel, said smugglers began transporting the weapons across the river following increased security at international crossings.

"All the arms are bought in the United States... Before we would transport them over the bridges, but now we transport them across the river, with difficulty," he said, according to the public security ministry.

The Rio Grande -- known as the Rio Bravo del Norte in Mexico -- forms the 1,200-mile (2,000 kilometer) border between Mexico and the US state of Texas.

Mexico has long called for stricter gun laws in the United States, which is believed to be the source of much of the weapons that end up in the hands of drug traffickers and is also one of their most lucrative markets.

Some 37,000 people have been killed in mostly drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006, when the government launched a massive military crackdown on the powerful cartels, which also battle each other over territory.

Rejon Aguilar was detained on Sunday in central Mexico as he was traveling to the south of the country to visit his mother in his home state of Campeche, according to Mexican authorities.

He was one of the founders of the Zetas cartel, a group of former soldiers who pioneered the use of military tactics and weaponry, at first in the service of the Gulf cartel, for which they worked as hitmen.

They later split from their employers and founded their own cartel, sparking a brutal turf war. The Zetas are accused of two mass killings, one in Mexico's northeast and one in a Guatemalan border province.

Five robbers killed as cops foil farm attack

A farmer and five of his workers escaped a deadly farm attack on Sunday night after being warned by the police and a security company that they were the targets of a gang of murderous robbers.

Craig Marwick was told to leave his farm in the Eston area, near Pietermaritzburg, on Sunday.

The police planned to lie in wait for the gang.

"Police and men from Magma Security told us that they had received information just after 7pm that a robbery was planned.

"They told us to leave the farm and go to nearby relatives," said Marwick.

Marwick said his family does not live on the farm, only he and his workers.

Members of the police's National Intervention Unit waited for the gang on the farm. The robbers were believed to part of a gang that has been terrorising the area.

The gang arrived at the farm at around 10pm on Sunday and tried to get onto the premises by forcing the farm gate.

National police spokesman Colonel Vish Naidoo said police confronted the group and called on them to surrender. The men refused.

"A shoot-out ensued which resulted in five [men] being shot dead and two escaping. One of the two [men] was later arrested," he said.

Police recovered seven firearms from the dead men, one of which was a police-issue pistol.

"The firearms will be sent for ballistics testing to establish whether they were used to commit other crimes," said Naidoo.

Naidoo said the 23-member gang of which the men killed on Sunday night are believed to have been members, has been linked to 25 murders, attempted murders, armed robbery and car hijacking in the area.

Of the 23, 12 were arrested last week in Mariannhill for murder, attempted murder and armed robbery.

They were also linked to the killing of a businessman in Hammersdale two weeks ago.

In October, 12 people were killed in their homes in Mariannhill and Shongweni in three days.

Naidoo could not confirm that the gang was linked to these attacks.

National police commissioner Bheki Cele said he was "elated" that his officers had emerged from the ambush on Sunday unscathed.

"These [men] chose to open fire on police officers rather than surrender. Five of the gang of thugs were fatally wounded. I am elated that my officers emerged unscathed," said Cele.

"I should imagine that this incident will serve as a further reminder that police officers will not take kindly to being shot at."

Cele said the officers' actions proved that the police were prepared to protect South Africans.

Marwick said he could not imagine what would have happened if the police had not been alert.

"As a family, we are grateful that we are alive," he said.

"Had the police and private security people not acted the way they did, there would have been another farm murder in the province. The incident indicates that farmers need to be protected . but also that they need to beef up their own security," he said.

 

Five dead, 23 wounded in holiday weekend violence

It was a violent holiday weekend in Chicago, with five men dead and at least 23 people wounded in shootings and stabbings throughout the city since Friday afternoon. The men killed ranged in age from 19 to 25 years old.

The murders include:

• About 2:30 p.m. Friday, police found a 21-year-old man -- identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office as David Cardine -- unresponsive in a van in the 1300 block of South Independence Boulevard, police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien said.

Cardine, of Lombard, was pronounced dead at 3:05 p.m. at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the medical examiner’s office.

• About 11:15 p.m. Friday, a male shot two men in the 1300 block of West Hastings Street and fled south on foot, police said.

One of the men -- identified by the medical examiner’s office as Javone Oliphant -- was shot multiple times, police said. The other man, 23, was shot in the buttocks and both legs and was treated and released from John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County.

Oliphant, of the 5000 block of West Maypole Avenue, was pronounced dead at 12:09 a.m. Saturday at Stroger Hospital, the medical examiner’s office said.

• A man and woman sitting in a vehicle in the 8500 block of South Givins Court were shot about 5:25 a.m. Saturday, police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.

Charles Bell, 25, of Harvey, was pronounced dead at St. Bernard Hospital and Health Center at 6:15 a.m. Saturday, according to the medical examiner’s office.

A 34-year-old woman was taken in an unidentified condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said.

• About 8:50 a.m. Saturday, a man in his 20s was shot to death in a street in the Little Village neighborhood.

The man was crossing the street at South Karlov Avenue and West 30th Street when he and the driver of a van exchanged words, Mirabelli said. The driver of the van then shot the man in the head.

Jose Moldonado, 22, of the 3100 block of South Kedvale Avenue, was dead on the scene, according to the medical examiner’s office.

• A man was fatally shot in the 6400 block of South Wolcott Avenue at 7:10 p.m. Sunday, News Affairs Officer Veejay Zala said.

Ricardo Hall, 30, of the 7900 block of South Honore Street-- suffered a gunshot wound to the neck and was pronounced dead at 7:36 p.m. Sunday at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the medical examiner’s office.

The following have not involved fatalities:

• About 6:05 p.m. Friday, an 18-year-old man was shot in the 4000 block of West West End Avenue, police said. Prior to the shooting, the man was arguing about money with the gunman.

The man was taken in “stable” condition to Mount Sinai Hospital with gunshot wounds to both legs, police said.

• About 7 p.m. Friday, a 22-year-old man standing on a corner in the 7700 block of South Essex Avenue ran when he heard gunshots, but still was shot in the leg, police said. He was taken in good condition to South Shore Hospital.

• About an hour later, an 18-year-old man standing in a driveway in the 1400 block of West 61st Street was shot in the back and taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition, police said.

• An 18-year-old man standing with a “large” group of people in the 6500 block of South Campbell Avenue was shot by a gunman on a bike about 8:35 p.m. Friday, police said. He was taken in “stable” condition to Christ Medical Center.

• About 10:05 p.m. Friday, a man in his 20s was shot in the 3100 block of South Kedvale Avenue, News Affairs Officer Ronald Gaines said.

• About 10 minutes later, a 17-year-old boy was standing in the street in the 1800 block of South Allport Street when a male passenger in a sport-utility vehicle yelled gang slogans and shot him, police said.

The teen was taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition with gunshot wounds to the head and back, police said.

• Just before noon Saturday a young man was shot near a South Side alley on the 1300 block of West 81st Street, Mirabelli said.

The victim, who was believed to be between 16 and 25 years old, suffered a gunshot wound to his right side, News Affairs Officer Darryl Baety said. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in an unidentified condition, though according to preliminary information his condition was “stable,” Mirabelli said.

• A 28-year-old man was shot in the ankle about 11:10 p.m. Saturday in the 7600 block of South Marquette Avenue and was taken in good condition to Jackson Park Hospital, police said.

• About 11:40 p.m. Saturday, a 24-year-old man was shot multiple times in the 3400 block of West Chicago Avenue, police said.

The man was initially taken in critical condition to Loretto Hospital and was transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

• About 1 a.m. Sunday, a 20-year-old man was shot in the shoulder and taken to a local hospital in good condition after the car he was riding in was chased by another near East 87th Street and South Stony Island Avenue.

The two cars were going west on 87th Street when the car being chased attempted to turn onto Stony Island, Mirabelli said. At that point a third vehicle, which was not involved in the chase, crashed into the car being chased.

The occupants of the car doing the chasing then got out, approached the car they were chasing, and opened fire, wounding the victim.

• At 6:15 p.m. Sunday, a 26-year-old man was walking in the 6300 block of South Carpenter Street when he was approached by an assailant who displayed a gun, opened fire and fled the scene, according to police. He was taken in “stable” condition to Stroger Hospital with two gunshot wounds to the body.

• At 8:25 p.m. Sunday, a 26-year-old man was shot in the head in the 0-100 block of East 119th Street, Zala said.

The man was taken in critical condition to Christ Medical Center, Fire Media Affairs spokesman Richard Rosado said.

• A man walked into a South Side hospital Sunday evening with gunshot wounds to the elbow and side, police said.

He told police the shooting happened about 7:40 p.m. Sunday in the 6300 block of South St. Lawrence Avenue when someone approached and opened fire. He was able to drive himself to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was treated for the gunshot wounds, police said.

• About 7:45 p.m. Sunday, a man and woman were wounded during a drive-by shooting. A vehicle was stopped in traffic in the 7100 block of South Greenwood Avenue when another vehicle pulled alongside and someone inside opened fire, according to a police. The second vehicle fled the scene.

A 21-year-old man was shot in the right leg and a 19-year-old woman was shot in the buttocks, police said. Both were taken in “stable” condition to Stroger Hospital.

• A man drove himself to a hospital late Sunday after he was shot while grabbing the gun from a man who was trying to rob him on the South Side.

The 33-year-old man was parked in a vehicle in the 7100 block of South Wentworth Avenue about 11:15 p.m. Sunday when a man approached with a handgun and demanded money, News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said.

The gunman opened fire when the man in the car reached for the weapon, police said. The gunman then fled the scene and the man in the vehicle -- who was shot in the forearm -- drove himself to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, where he was listed in good condition, according to police.

• About 11:55 p.m. Sunday, a 25-year-old man was stabbed during a fight on a Lake View street.

The man was involved in a physical altercation on the 3300 block of North Halsted Street when he was stabbed, Baety said.

The man was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition, according to police.

• A 21-year-old woman was critically injured in a shooting early Monday on the West Side. She was standing in the 4800 block of West Augusta Boulevard when someone inside a light-colored vehicle opened fire at 12:54 a.m. Monday, police said. She was shot multiple times in the back and side and was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, police said.

• About 5:02 a.m. Monday a man was stabbed on the West Side. He was stabbed on the 4000 block of West Roosevelt Road, Baety said, and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in an unspecified condition.

• About 3:20 p.m. Monday, a 20-year-old man was shot in the shoulder in the 9700 block of South Merrion Avenue, police said. He was taken in good condition to Advocate Trinity Hospital, police said.

• Monday afternoon, an 18-year-old man was wounded in a shooting in the South Side Back of the Yards neighborhood.

The man was shot at 3:37 p.m. in the 4800 block of South Damen Avenue, Zala said.

The man was taken in serious to critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, Fire Media Affairs Cmdr. Will Knight said. The shooting may have been a drive-by, said Zala, citing preliminary information.

Chicago Police detectives are investigating, but they have not announced any arrests or charges related to any of the incidents.

 

man suspected of killing four people, including his wife and ex-wife, killed himself Sunday after leading police on a chase back to the scene of three of the slayings

man suspected of killing four people, including his wife and ex-wife, killed himself Sunday after leading police on a chase back to the scene of three of the slayings, authorities said.

Kenneth Myers, 46, was driving his dead ex-wife's car when deputies began chasing him early Sunday morning, Aiken County Sheriff's Capt. Charles Barranco said.
Officers fired several shots at Myers as he tried to ram their cruisers before the chase ended back at the home where deputies found three people dead around 6 p.m. Saturday. Myers then apparently shot himself.
Aiken County Coroner Tim Carlton identified the dead as Myers' wife, 25-year-old Angela Myers; her twin sister, Tabitha Brown; her mother, 50-year-old Vicki Brown; and Myers' ex-wife, 47-year-old Esther Baldwin. All four died from single gunshots.
Police were checking in with several more people who they thought could be threatened by Myers when they found him and he fled, Barranco said.
Investigators spent all night trying to piece together why Myers might have gone on the killing spree. Deputies weren't immediately familiar with him before Saturday night.
"It's hard to say at this point in the investigation why those people were killed," Barranco said.
Phone calls to several listings related to Myers were not answered Sunday.
Investigators have uncovered some threats Myers made to people in the past, but people who have been interviewed so far didn't think he would turn violent, Barranco said.
The first three bodies were discovered in a secluded, rural home near Wagener, about 40 miles east of Augusta, Ga. Deputies going to check on another person living nearby discovered Baldwin's body about seven hours later, authorities said.
Robin Halsey, who was a neighbor of Myers, told WRDW that only days ago the shooting suspect has discussed how he was feeding a "little stray dog."
"He was talking about how he was going to catch it and take it home and try to save its life, and he was saying, 'I don't see how people can just throw a stray dog out on the street,'" she added.
Investigators initially thought Myers might be heading for Alabama before finding him not far from where all the killings took place.
"We need to try to find some answers," Barranco said.

11-year-old central Indiana boy charged with killing his brother

An 11-year-old central Indiana boy charged with killing his brother is likely the youngest person to face a murder charge in Indiana in about 90 years.

The Indianapolis Star reported Saturday that the last time someone so young was charged with murder in Indiana came in the early 1920s, when an 11-year-old was charged with murder and tried as an adult in northwest Indiana's Starke County. That boy wasn't convicted.


Few details about the shooting Thursday night that killed 6-year-old Andrew Frye at his family's home near Martinsville have been released because a judge on Friday ordered details to remain sealed. Morgan County Prosecutor Steve Sonnega said some information might emerge Wednesday when the defendant appears for an initial hearing.

The 11-year-old was being held Saturday at the Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center.

"Murder can be knowingly or intentionally," Sonnega said. "There is a slight difference. Knowingly means when you engage in conduct you know there is a high probability of the outcome."

The boy currently is charged as a juvenile with murder and criminal recklessness. However, the case could eventually end up in adult court, as Indiana law allows anyone over age 10 to be tried as an adult. For that to happen, prosecutors would have to convince the county's juvenile court judge that there was strong evidence against him, that he likely cannot be rehabilitated in the juvenile system, and that waiving him to adult court is in the best interest of the safety and welfare of the community.

Sonnega said a decision on whether to seek to have the boy waived into adult court would be made later.

The 11-year-old called 911 to report the shooting about 6:15 p.m. Thursday. Officers arrived and found the 6-year-old on a bed in a bedroom with a .22 caliber gunshot wound to the head. The boy was taken to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where he died at 8:03 p.m. Thursday, police said. Judge Christopher Burnham's order after a probable cause hearing Friday barred Sonnega from disclosing details of the case.

The boys were cared for by their mother and her boyfriend, but a sheriff's officer said no adults were home when the shooting occurred.

Prosecutors and police were investigating possible neglect charges against the adults, Sonnega said.

Martinsville is about 30 miles south of Indianapolis.