Four suspects charged in Nevada official's death

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Investigators believe four suspects stole property in the apartment of Nevada's chief insurance examiner before killing him and dumping his body in a river, authorities said Sunday.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said all four suspects have been booked on murder charges in the death of William McCune, 62, whose blanket-wrapped, duct-tape-bound body was found Saturday.

Initially, Michael Evans, 23, and Anthony Elliot, 20, were booked on murder charges, while Raul Garcia, 22, and Makyla Blackmore, 20, were arrested on burglary charges. But Furlong said Sunday that Garcia and Blackmore were later booked on murder charges.

The suspects are from the Carson City area, he said, and the case isn't related to McCune's work for the state.

Investigators found evidence of a bloody, violent struggle in McCune's apartment on Thursday, the same day he was reported missing after he failed to catch a business flight with a co-worker.

Detectives believe McCune knew two of the suspects socially, Furlong said, and the motive was the theft of property or money from him. They're still processing evidence at McCune's apartment and trying to compile an accurate list of stolen items, he said.

"We think stealing was quite apparently the motive because they took so much from him," Furlong told The Associated Press. "The mystery is if you intended on robbing and killing him, why did you have to take the body out? That doesn't make sense to me."

Three suspects were arrested Saturday on the Las Vegas Strip after allegedly trying to sell a "computer item," the sheriff said. Investigators were trying to determine whether it belonged to McCune.

Evans was taken into custody in Carson City, while authorities believe the other three suspects fled Carson City for Las Vegas after news broke of McCune's disappearance.

All four suspects were spotted near McCune's apartment around the time of his disappearance, and businesses frequented by the suspects provided important tips that led to their arrests, Furlong said. He declined to elaborate.

Authorities were unsure how long two of the suspects and McCune knew each other or how they met.

It wasn't clear Sunday whether any of the four had an attorney, and the Las Vegas and Carson City jails don't make new inmates available to the media for comment. The three suspects in Las Vegas are expected to be returned to Carson City within a week.

McCune had held his position since December 2009 and worked similar jobs for two decades before that. As head of the division's corporate and financial affairs section, McCune worked to ensure the solvency of insurance companies in the state. He was charged with ensuring each company had sufficient money in their reserves to cover all claims and obligations.

McCune was single and without any known children, Furlong said, and there was no forced entry at his home.

Investigators believe the body found in the Carson River Saturday was that of McCune, even though a positive identification and cause of death are not expected to be officially established by the Washoe County medical examiner's office until later this week, he said.

There was no indication yet of the weapon or weapons involved in the death, he added, but investigators would have a better idea after autopsy results are released.

While authorities have not found McCune's pickup truck, they located its license plates Friday night at a Carson City residence that Evans was known to have frequented, the sheriff said.

Investigators do not expect any additional arrests in the case. "We believe all the people involved have been taken into custody," Furlong said.

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Florida officials push for answers at boys' school graveyard

By Bill Cotterell

MARIANNA, Florida (Reuters) - Florida officials said on Wednesday they will seek federal money for a forensic investigation into unmarked graves on the grounds of a shuttered state reform school for boys that has been the target of numerous allegations of abuse and mysterious deaths of children.

Dozens of unmarked graves have been uncovered at the Dozier School in the Florida Panhandle city of Marianna and investigators are trying to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths, which experts say probably occurred between 1914 and 1952.

"We really don't know exactly how many, or who they are," said Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist at the University of South Florida with a scroll-like map of spots where her ground-piercing radar spotted signs of human remains.

The Dozier School was legend among adolescents for about 100 years in Florida, as the state's major reform school, until it was closed in 2011.

Several years ago, former students told horror stories of sexual abuse and frequent beatings in a mausoleum-like building dubbed the "White House" where nine barren cubicles held boys accused of rules infractions.

Some died under unknown circumstances, according to relatives.

In December, researchers from the University of South Florida in Tampa said they found evidence of at least 50 graves on the school's property and more grave shafts in and around an area called "Boot Hill" across a major highway from the high, razor-wire-topped fences of the closed school.

Kimmerle's work also indicates there could be at least 50 bodies buried on the property.

"All the focus on exact numbers is not really the issue," she said. "Whether it's one or 20 or 40 or 60, we are talking about a child and families that are asking for information."

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and other state officials are seeking a court order to allow the remains to be exhumed.

The U.S. Department of Justice has a program that could provide up to $3 million for forensic sifting of the burial areas, said U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, who toured the site on Wednesday.

A $200,000 appropriation is pending in the state legislature.

Nelson said he wants to find out as much as possible and let relatives know the truth. He noted that "the statute of limitation on murder never runs out," but said there is little chance of prosecuting anyone.

State Attorney Glenn Hess said only one or two employees from the era are known to be alive, and it's unlikely a trial could prove how a boy died or who was responsible.

"The question is, can we establish probable cause that a crime has been committed, and who did it?" he said. "That's the hard part."

Families could ask their legislators to file "claims" bills for civil compensation, if identity could be established from remains and if negligence might be established on the part of the state.

(Editing by Brendan O'Brien, Kevin Gray and Lisa Shumaker)

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Officials: U.S. training Syrian forces

The United States is training secular Syrian fighters in Jordan in a bid to bolster forces battling President Bashar Assad's regime and stem the influence of Islamist radicals among the country's persistently splintered opposition, American and foreign officials said.

The training has been conducted for several months now in an unspecified location, concentrating largely on Sunnis and tribal Bedouins who formerly served as members of the Syrian army, officials told The Associated Press. The forces aren't members of the leading rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, which Washington and others fear may be increasingly coming under the sway of extremist militia groups, including some linked to al-Qaida, they said.

The operation is being run by U.S. intelligence and is ongoing, officials said, but those in Washington stressed that the U.S. is providing only nonlethal aid at this point. Others such as Britain and France are involved, they said, though it's unclear whether any Western governments are providing materiel or other direct military support after two years of civil war that according to the United Nations already has killed more than 70,000 people.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the program.

Officially, the Obama administration has been vague on the subject of what type of military training it may be providing, while insisting that it is doing all it can — short of providing weapons to the rebels or engaging in its own military intervention — to hasten the demise of the Assad family's four-decade dictatorship.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday the U.S. has "provided some logistical nonlethal support that has also come in handy for the Syrian rebels who are, again, fighting a regime that is not hesitating to use the military might of that regime against its own people.

"That is something we're going to continue to work to bring to an end," he told reporters.

It's unclear what effect the training has had in the conflict, which has become a quagmire with Assad's regime unable to snuff out the rebellion and Syria's opposition incapable thus far of delivering any serious blow to the ruling government's grip on Damascus and control over much of the country.

Some of the Syrians the U.S. is involved with are, in turn, training other Syrians inside the border, officials said.

They declined to provide more information because they said that would go too deep into intelligence matters. Defense Department officials insisted the Pentagon isn't involved with any military training or arms provisions to the Syrian rebels, either directly or indirectly. The CIA declined to comment.

The New York Times reported Monday that the CIA helped Arab governments and Turkey sharply increase their military aid to Syria's opposition in recent months, with secret airlifts of arms and equipment. It cited traffic data, officials in several countries and rebel commanders, and said the airlift began on a small scale a year ago but has expanded steadily to more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari planes landing in Turkish and Jordanian airports.

The training in Jordan, however, suggests the U.S. help is aimed somewhat at enhancing the rebels' capacity in southern Syria, the birthplace of the revolution two years ago when teenagers in the sleepy agricultural outpost of Dara'a scribbled graffiti on a wall and were tossed into jail, spurring Syria's own version of an Arab Spring uprising. Much of the violence since, however, has been in the northern part of the country where rebels have scored several military successes after the Assad regime cracked down brutally on peaceful protesters.

Despite months of U.S. and international support to build a cohesive political movement, however, Syria's fractured opposition is still struggling to rally Syrians behind a common post-Assad vision. And the opposition coalition appears as much hampered by its political infighting as its military deficiencies against an Assad regime arsenal of tanks, fighter jets and scud missiles.

The coalition's president, Mouaz al-Khatib, resigned his position on Sunday because of what he described as restrictions on his work and frustration with the level of international aid. He said Monday he would still represent the opposition this week in Doha, where the Gulf state of Qatar will host a two-day Arab League summit starting Tuesday.

Al-Khatib's resignation comes only days after the opposition chose Ghassan Hitto, a long-time Texas resident, to head its interim government after intense wrangling over posts and influence that U.S. officials say has strained the opposition's unity and caused friction among its primary benefactors Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

It's also unclear how al-Khatib's departure will affect the U.S. goal of political negotiations with amenable members of the Assad regime to end the civil war, given the moderate preacher's support for talks. Much of the Syrian opposition, including Hitto, rejects such talks.

"He's been a courageous leader," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said of al-Khatib.

"But the bottom line is what we're looking for is unity," Ventrell said. "We continue to support the coalition's vision for a tolerant, inclusive Syria. We want them to continue to work together to implement that vision."

Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Paris on Wednesday to meet French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius for talks expected to focus on arming Syrian rebels. The discussions also are expected to touch on the suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria, according to French officials.

U.S. officials say there are strong indications that chemical weapons weren't used in an attack last week in northern Aleppo, over which the regime and the rebels have issued counterclaims.

Washington has said it will support a U.N. investigation.

———

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Lara Jakes in Washington and Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

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Former California city officials convicted in corruption trial

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Five former elected officials from the scandal-plagued California city of Bell were convicted on Wednesday of misusing municipal funds by collecting exorbitant salaries in a case that drew national attention as a symbol of public corruption.

The trial stemmed from an explosive scandal in Bell, a small, mostly blue-collar municipality near Los Angeles, following revelations in 2010 that its city manager, Robert Rizzo, was paid a salary of $787,000 - or nearly twice that of President Barack Obama.

Rizzo faces a separate trial with his onetime assistant, Angela Spaccia, on public corruption-related charges.

The Bell scandal fueled a statewide debate over public pay and led to upheaval in the city of over 35,000 residents, who in 2011 voted to replace all their council members.

Capping two weeks of deliberations, a Los Angeles County jury on Wednesday found ex-Mayor Oscar Hernandez and former City Council members Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal each guilty on five felony counts of misappropriation of public funds and acquitted them of five other counts.

Former Councilman George Cole was convicted of two counts and acquitted of two others, while ex-Councilman Victor Bellow was found guilty of four counts and acquitted of four others.

A sixth defendant, former Councilman Luis Artiga, was acquitted of all 12 counts against him and wept openly as Judge Kathleen Kennedy told him he was free to go.

After acquitting Artiga, the jury of seven women and five men said they deadlocked, 9-3, on remaining counts against his five co-defendants and indicated they might be able to reach a unanimous verdict with some further instructions from the judge.

The jury went home for the day on Wednesday and was expected to return the next morning to resume its deliberations.

All six former officials on trial had been accused of giving themselves extravagant pay for sitting on various municipal boards - the Community Housing Authority, Surplus Property Authority, Public Financing Authority and Solid Waste and Recycling Authority - that rarely met to conduct business.

Bellow's attorney, Leo Moriarty, said outside court it was unclear how much time behind bars the convicted defendants could face, but he added that they could be sentenced to probation under the counts on which they have been found guilty.

Defense lawyers argued that their clients were wrongly accused, had worked hard for the city and earned their salaries.

The eight former city officials arrested in September 2010 in the investigation were collectively accused of bilking taxpayers out of roughly $5.5 million through excessive salaries, benefits and illicit loans of public money. Then-Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley called it a case of "corruption on steroids."

The California legislature approved a number of bills aimed at dealing with the 2010 Bell scandal, including one to reimburse city residents overcharged on property taxes.

Bell Mayor Ali Saleh, who was elected in 2011 when voters tossed out the previous council members, said the convictions bring "some closure" for residents.

"Our community will rest when the legal process has come full circle and justice has been served," he said.

The Bell scandal came to light when the Los Angeles Times in a series of articles revealed the city's officials had secretly enriched themselves, and the paper won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for its coverage of the story.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman, Dana Feldman and Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Dan Grebler and Lisa Shumaker)

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Ex-Calif. city officials convicted in corruption trial

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Five former elected officials from the scandal-plagued California city of Bell were convicted on Wednesday of misusing municipal funds by collecting exorbitant salaries in a case that drew national attention as a symbol of public corruption.

The trial stemmed from an explosive scandal in Bell, a small, mostly blue-collar municipality near Los Angeles, following revelations in 2010 that its city manager, Robert Rizzo, was paid a salary of $787,000 - or nearly twice that of President Barack Obama.

Rizzo faces a separate trial with his onetime assistant, Angela Spaccia, on public corruption-related charges.

The Bell scandal fueled a statewide debate over public pay and led to upheaval in the city of over 35,000 residents, who in 2011 voted to replace all their council members.

Capping two weeks of deliberations, a Los Angeles County jury on Wednesday found ex-Mayor Oscar Hernandez and former City Council members Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal each guilty on five felony counts of misappropriation of public funds and acquitted them of five other counts.

Former Councilman George Cole was convicted of two counts and acquitted of two others, while ex-Councilman Victor Bellow was found guilty of four counts and acquitted of four others.

A sixth defendant, former Councilman Luis Artiga, was acquitted of all 12 counts against him and wept openly as Judge Kathleen Kennedy told him he was free to go.

After acquitting Artiga, the jury of seven women and five men said they deadlocked, 9-3, on remaining counts against his five co-defendants and indicated they might be able to reach a unanimous verdict with some further instructions from the judge.

The jury went home for the day on Wednesday and was expected to return the next morning to resume its deliberations.

All six former officials on trial had been accused of giving themselves extravagant pay for sitting on various municipal boards - the Community Housing Authority, Surplus Property Authority, Public Financing Authority and Solid Waste and Recycling Authority - that rarely met to conduct business.

Bellow's attorney, Leo Moriarty, said outside court it was unclear how much time behind bars the convicted defendants could face, but he added that they could be sentenced to probation under the counts on which they have been found guilty.

Defense lawyers argued that their clients were wrongly accused, had worked hard for the city and earned their salaries.

The eight former city officials arrested in September 2010 in the investigation were collectively accused of bilking taxpayers out of roughly $5.5 million through excessive salaries, benefits and illicit loans of public money. Then-Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley called it a case of "corruption on steroids."

The California legislature approved a number of bills aimed at dealing with the 2010 Bell scandal, including one to reimburse city residents overcharged on property taxes.

Bell Mayor Ali Saleh, who was elected in 2011 when voters tossed out the previous council members, said the convictions bring "some closure" for residents.

"Our community will rest when the legal process has come full circle and justice has been served," he said.

The Bell scandal came to light when the Los Angeles Times in a series of articles revealed the city's officials had secretly enriched themselves, and the paper won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for its coverage of the story.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman, Dana Feldman and Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Dan Grebler and Lisa Shumaker)

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