Texas executes man who argued he was mentally handicapped

A Texas man convicted of killing a police informant was executed Tuesday evening after the Supreme Court refused to hear arguments that he was mentally handicapped and therefore should not qualify for the death penalty, The Associated Press reported.

Marvin Wilson, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m., 14 minutes after his lethal injection began at the state prison in Huntsville.

Wilson’s attorneys had challenged his execution as unconstitutional under the 2002 decision Atkins v. Virginia, which banned executing mentally retarded people but gave states some discretion in deciding who qualified for protection.

In their appeal to the high court, his attorneys pointed to a psychological test conducted in 2004 that pegged Wilson’s IQ at 61, below the generally accepted minimum competency standard of 70. Federal law bans executions of mentally handicapped people as cruel and unusual punishment.

The defendant was convicted of murder for the November 1992 killing of a 21-year-old police drug informant, Jerry Robert Williams, and was sentenced to death in April 1994.

Lower courts agreed with state attorneys, who argued that Wilson’s claim was based on a single test that may have been faulty and that his mental impairment claim isn’t supported by other tests and assessments of him over the years.

Read more of this story on MSBNC.com

Florida Man Charged With Feeding Gator That Ate His Hand

The day an alligator bit off his right hand was not the last time Wallace Weatherholt would have to pay for feeding an alligator.

Weatherholt, a 63-year-old airboat captain in the Florida Everglades, was giving a tour of the area to an Indiana family on June 12 when a 9-foot alligator suddenly sank its teeth into his wrist, severing his hand.

Six weeks later, Weatherholt faces a second-degree misdemeanor charge of feeding the alligator.

“It’s a very sad situation for Mr. Weatherholt, and we wish this never happened to him, but there are laws on the books to protect people from this exact incident,” said Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officer Jorge Pino.

After the attack, the FWC began an investigation, asking whether Weatherholt had provoked the alligator by feeding it a fish.

The family aboard the airboat told The Associated Press that Weatherholt, who works for Captain Doug’s Small Airport Tours in Everglades City, Fla., had been hanging the fish over the side of the boat with his hand when the alligator leapt out of the water.

Pino said that based on witness statements the FWC received that day and “photographic and physical evidence,” investigators had enough information for the state’s attorney to approve a charge of feeding an alligator.

FWC officers tracked down the alligator and euthanized it shortly after the attack, Pino said.

Weatherholt drove the boat back to its dock with one hand and was immediately taken to the hospital. His hand was found in the alligator’s stomach but could not be reattached, Pino said.

The law against feeding alligators is intended to protect both animals and humans, Pino said. When they are fed, gators lose their fear of humans, he said, and when an alligator becomes dangerous, FWC officers are called in to kill it.

“As soon as you say there’s an alligator that’s not afraid of humans, that’s like signing a death warrant for that alligator,” he said. “The more people abide by the rules on the books, the safer the gators will be, and more importantly, the safer the humans will be.”

Weatherholt was arrested Friday and faces a fine of up to $500 and a possible jail sentence. He was released after posting $1,000 bail, and is due back in court on Aug. 22.

ABC News Reports.

New York Man Catches Girl Falling From Window

A 7-year-old New York City girl escaped injury after she fell from a third-story window when she was caught by a neighbor.

Cell phone video taken by a resident in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn shows Keyla McCree standing on an air conditioning unit moments before she fell and landed in the bushes. Her dramatic fall was broken by the arms of Steven St. Bernard, who rushed to the scene and caught the girl.

“Please let me catch her, please let me catch her, that’s all I could say. Let me catch the little baby, that’s all,” said St. Bernard.

The 52-year-old bus driver and father of four told ABC News affiliate WABC that he was just in the right place at the right time.

“It feels good now to know that I did something,” said St. Bernard, who lives in the apartment complex.

Keyla, who is autistic, managed to perch herself on the air conditioner by pushing through one of the accordion pieces that holds the unit to the window while her mother was in the next room. Moments before she fell, McCree was seen dancing on the air conditioning unit. Police tell WABC they do not believe McCree’s parents did anything criminal.

“She did hit the bushes and the ground a little, but not straight on because of his arms,” said witness Latasha Marcus.

St. Bernard tore a tendon in his left shoulder and was sporting a sling after the incident. As for Keyla, she’s doing just fine thanks to the man who certainly lived up to his name.

“I saw her in the hospital. She doesn’t have a scratch on her,” said St. Bernard.

This morning, friends and neighbors are calling St. Bernard a hero. “No. A hero is a sandwich. I just saw a kid, that’s it,” said St. Bernard.

Good Morning America Reports.

Man surrenders after French school hostage siege

An armed man briefly took an adult hostage at a nursery school south of Paris.

The intruder, who entered the school in Vitry-sur-Seine on the southern edge of the capital shortly before opening time, freed the hostage after a few hours and later surrendered to police, said Ludovic Monier, a policeman at the scene.

“At 12.10 (0610 EDT) the hostage-taker was taken out (of the building) calmly … without any shots fired,” Monier told reporters.

Last month, a 26-year-old man with a record of psychological problems, was shot and arrested by elite police in the southern city of Toulouse after taking several hostages at a bank and claiming to be a member of al Qaeda.

Toulouse, in the southwestern corner of France, was also the city where an al Qaeda-inspired gunman, 23-year-old Mohamed Merah, was shot dead by police after killing three soldiers, three Jewish children at a school, and a rabbi.

Buenos Aires Herald Reports.

Florida Man Sets Woman On Fire, Captured On Video

A Florida man who was seen setting fire to the mother of his child on a 7-Eleven surveillance video was denied bail today.

Roosevelt Mondesir, 52, is charged with attempted first-degree murder. The harrowing moments of what was supposed to be a simple custody exchange of the couple’s 4-year-old son were captured Monday on the security camera at the Boynton Beach gas station.

Watch the video at ABC News Miami Affiliate

The woman, who police are not identifying, was seen pulling into the 7-Eleven in her silver Mercedes. Police would not say what the was relationship between the couple.

Mondesir then pulled into the station in his white Jaguar, without their child. When the woman realized her son was not in the car, she tried to leave.

Mondesir then threw “gasoline on her vehicle and her body,” according to police.

“The victim began to run from the defendent, but was chased down at which point the defendant threw fire onto the victim and she became engulfed in flames,” the charging document stated.

The woman, 34, began to put the fire out and remove her shirt when she realized Mindesir had a long knife, possibly a machete, she told police.

The victim ran from her attacker and took refuge inside the convenience store. The two engaged in a tug-of war with the door while 7-Eleven staff called police.

“This is 7-Eleven. We have a problem. We have some fight and fire,” the female employee said.

The victim can be heard crying and yelling in the background, “It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.”

Read more of this story on ABC News.

Man Kicks Knife Out of Robber’s Hand at Florida

ABC News’ Connor Burton reports:

Orange County, Fla. – A customer at an Orlando 7-11 stopped an armed robbery attempt by kicking a knife out of the robber’s hand and chasing him out of the store with a wine bottle.

Surveillance video shows a man wearing a white bandana over his face entering the 7-11 and pulling out a knife and demanding money from the customer and the store clerk.

The customer then kicks the knife out of the robber’s hand and chases him out of the store while the clerk calls 911.

The brave customer did not want to be identified, but described the details of the incident to ABC News affiliate WFTV.

“I know he wasn’t kidding because he came after me,” said the customer. “I ain’t going to let that dude stab me, so I am like, ‘Boom!’”

When asked about the potential danger he was putting himself in, the Good Samaritan said he really didn’t think about himself being harmed.

“It is what it is. You know what I am saying? You don’t think about it at the time because he’s like, ‘Yo, robbing the place give me all your money,’ and I am like, ‘Are you serious?’” the customer said.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said that a similar event involving a knife wielding robber occurred last month.

Tennessee man digging in garden finds 13 tombstones linked to military cemetery

A Tennessee man digging in his backyard garden over the weekend found 13 tombstones that have been traced to a historic military cemetery.

Jason Blackburn, a nurse at the Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women in Memphis, was clearing a walkway that leads to his dog’s pen when he dug up a tombstone below some 3 inches of dirt. At first he mistook it for a garden stone, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.

“My first reaction was, ‘Oh my goodness, I hope there’s not dead bodies in my backyard,” Blackburn told the newspaper. “I mean that’s the first reaction when you’re digging in your backyard and you find tombstones.”

Blackburn searched a name on one of the gravestones — Pvt. Arthur Woodson — on the Internet and determined it was linked to Memphis National Cemetery, a historic memorial park that goes back to the Civil War and is now run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Read more on MSNBC News.

Unidentified Man Survives Niagara Falls Plunge

A man who climbed over a retaining wall and leaped into the Horseshoe Falls in Ontario, Canada, earlier today is at an area hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to news reports.

Witnesses – many of  whom were out celebrating Victoria Day, a Canadian holiday – told the Niagara Parks Police Service that they saw the man, believed to be in his 40s, climb high above the Canadian side of the falls and jump.

He later appeared in the lower Niagara River basin near the Journey Behind the Falls observation deck.

“He went over the falls and survived,” parks police Sgt. Chris Gallagher told the Niagara Falls Review. “He did this of his own accord.”

The man reportedly was found by park police before he collapsed. He was lifted out of the falls by a crane and then taken to a Hamilton-area hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The Niagara Falls Review said the unidentified man’s leap was the fourth time a person had survived a jump over the falls without a barrel.

ABC News.

N.Y. Man Seeks Donations for $60K Dog Custody Battle

Craig Dershowitz says his ex-girlfriend “dognapped” his puggle named Knuckles and he’ll do anything to get the pooch back – including going into debt and pleading for donations online to further the effort.

According to the “ Rescue Knux” website Dershowitz created as a forum for people to donate to the cause, he claims his ex-girlfriend was taking care of Knuckles while he was looking for a new place to live after their breakup. But when he returned for the pooch, the ex – whom he portrays as Cruella Deville in a video on the site – had left New York and was on her way to California, taking Knuckles with her.

But Dershowitz wouldn’t let her get away that easily. He is now taking her to court to battle for custody of the beloved puggle. Dershowitz has already spent almost $60,000 in fees – and the fight isn’t over yet. That’s why he’s enlisting kind souls and fellow pet lovers to help, asking for donations to further his cause.

Dershowitz told ABC News that he had already received two orders in the state of New York giving him custody of Knuckles. But the situation gets sticky because his ex now lives in Los Angeles. A California judge will hear arguments May 16.

“I know it might sound funny and I understand that. If it wasn’t so painful, I would be laughing too (I mean, c’mon – dognapp – really?) but this is very serious to me and I miss him a lot. Enough that I have gone into debt to retrieve him and enough that I am on here asking for your help. I need the money to keep fighting the court battle,” Dershowitz wrote on the site.

Dershowitz says his ex’s strategy is to bring him down financially by “filing motion after frivolous motion just knowing that each time my lawyer responds it takes me one step closer to having nothing at all.” But that won’t stop him. “This bond is often as strong as between a child and parent. I raised Knux since he was two months old. I trained him, played with him, loved him and felt that he did pretty much the same to me. No, he is not a human being. But, he is a caring, loving being with a soul that I have grabbed and held. He does mean that much to me.”

So far, Dershowitz has collected $410 of the $20,000 he’s asking for.

ABC NEWS/ Good Morning America.

Arizona Man Hits Lotto Luck, Times Six

It’s not much of a mystery to figure out the lucky number that one Arizona man now claims for the rest of his life: 6.

That’s the number of Powerball tickets purchased by the Glendale man that made him a millionaire, not once but six times over.

The man, who asked not to be identified, as the Arizona Lottery allows, used the same combination of numbers for six Powerball tickets he purchased late last month, according to an Arizona Lottery spokeswoman.

The tickets were all second-place winners, leaving the man with six $1 million prizes.

The lucky lotto winnings were just announced this week, but the man has already collected his million-dollar winnings over the course of several visits to the state lottery’s headquarters in Phoenix.

Similar good lotto luck fell on a Virginia resident last  month.   Virginia Fike, of Berryville,  had two tickets that matched five of the six Powerball numbers in an April 7 drawing, so that each ticket was worth $1 million.