Ohio executes crime-rampage killer linked to Livonia murder

Columbus, Ohio — Ohio on Wednesday executed a man who fatally shot an adult bookstore security guard in 1994 at the end of a multistate crime rampage as witnesses of a second slaying victim of that rampage looked on intently.

Frederick Treesh received a single powerful dose of pentobarbital and was pronounced dead at 10:37 a.m. by Donald Morgan, warden of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

Treesh was sentenced to die for killing Henry Dupree in Eastlake east of Cleveland on Aug. 27, 1994. He and a co-defendant were suspects in the shooting death three days earlier of Ghassan Danno, a Livonia, Mich., video store co-owner.

"This is where drugs lead you," Treesh, a former cocaine addict, said in a last statement.

He also apologized for the death of Dupree, but said he wouldn't say he was sorry to family members of Danno, who sat a few feet away watching through a window. Treesh said he'd never been charged or tried in that slaying.

After a few more comments Treesh said, "If you want me murdered, just say it."

Treesh, of Waterloo, Ind., was the 50th inmate put to death by the state since it resumed executions in 1999.

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
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Ex-postal worker charged in gift card thefts

A former postal worker in Romeo is accused of stealing and using gift cards from customers on her delivery route over the holidays, postal investigators said.

The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General began investigating Cynthia Winters after customers complained of missing gift cards, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court. She is charged with theft of mail by a postal employee.

One man called the mail theft complaint hotline to report two $100 gift cards mailed Dec. 19 from his father's Ray Township home never reached the relative they were intended for. One from Target was redeemed four days later at a Shelby Township location.

By Mark Hicks
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Murder or self-defense? Opposing pictures emerge grandmother's slaying trial

Pontiac — The trial of a 75-year-old West Bloomfield Township woman charged in the slaying of her teenage grandson opened Tuesday with dramatic recounting of his final minutes and the terror to which he allegedly subjected his grandmother for months.

But there was no disputing Sandra Layne, a retired school teacher charged with open murder in the May 2012 slaying of Jonathan Hoffman, 17, fired the fatal shots. Defense attorney Jerome Sabbota told jurors they will hear Layne testify what led to the shooting.

"She is no murderer … he was a troubled teen and she was in fear for her life," said Sabbota, who ticked off events that transformed his client into an accused killer.

"She was afraid because she had seen him tied up in the hospital," said Sabbota of one drug arrest and added Jonathan had also previously attacked his mother, Layne's daughter, during an argument police had to break up.

Then there was his escalating use of drugs: marijuana, mushrooms and K2 or Spice, a synthetic drug that had been linked to an April 2012 case involving another teen accused of attacking family members and beating his father to death with a baseball bat.

By Mike Martindale
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Final minutes of teen's life described in trial of West Bloomfield grandmother

Pontiac — The trial of a 75-year-old West Bloomfield Township woman charged in the fatal shooting of her teenage grandson opened with jurors hearing dramatic descriptions of the final minutes of the victim's life from the prosecution and the terror to which he subjected his grandmother from the defense.

Sandra Layne has been jailed for nine months without bond awaiting trial in Oakland County Circuit Court on a charge of open murder in the May 2012 slaying of Jonathan Hoffman, 17, who suffered five gunshot wounds from a handgun purchased by Layne. Her attorney, Jerome Sabbota, contends Layne armed herself out of fear and the fatal shots were fired during a struggle for the gun. The struggle was recorded during a 911 call from Hoffman.

The pale, diminutive Layne bowed her head as Paul Walton, chief assistant Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney recalled Hoffman's last words for jurors.

By Mike Martindale
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'I still got to fight out here': former Tuskegee Airman recounts carjacking

Former Tuskegee Airman recounts daytime carjacking in Detroit; 4 teens charged

Detroit — As he stared down the barrel of a nickel-plated pistol wielded by a teenage gunman demanding the keys to his Jeep, Jesse Rutledge said an odd thought entered his mind:

"I'm thinking, 'This kid is so little; how's he going to see over the steering wheel?'" said the 88-year-old former Tuskegee Airman, who flew missions in World War II.

That initial thought was replaced by fear, said Rutledge, who was carjacked by four youths as he left a barber shop near Harper and Van Dyke about 4 p.m. Saturday.

"Yeah, I was scared," said Rutledge, a former gunner on a B-25 bomber, shaking his head. "I'm 80-something years old and I still got to fight out here."

Police arrested the alleged robbers — ages 13, 14, 15 and 16 — the next day.

By George Hunter
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Support, tips offered after Clinton Township boy's death

No arrests in hit and run; witnesses say red pickup hit Christopher Sandoval

A driver who fatally struck a 10-year-old boy on Detroit's east side Sunday then fled has not yet been found, and the youth's family is seeking answers as well as help for a funeral.

As of Monday night, the Detroit Police Department said no arrests were made in the death of Christopher Sandoval, who was hit in front of his home in the 16000 block of Bringard while taking trash to the curb.

Neighbors who saw the driver of the pickup — described as a red Dodge Ram from the early 2000s, possibly with a snow plow in the front and snow blowers in the back — continue to share tips with the Sandoval family.

They claim the man might have been spotted in the area before, said Lisa Sandoval, Christopher's mother.

By Mark Hicks
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