Miles Allen

A Georgia judge sentenced a former Morehouse College Miles Allen to two life sentences plus 70 years Monday for torturing and murdering a classmate three years ago. A Clayton County jury convicted the 26-year-old theology student on 11 of 12 counts, including four counts of murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping. Allen is one of four men charged with kidnapping Morehouse junior Carlnell Walker before torturing him for eight straight hours. Prosecutors had charged them with beating, stabbing and dousing Walker with gasoline before dumping him in a car trunk outside Walker’s Riverdale home. Allen’s alleged accomplices will be tried later this month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Allen’s sentence was the maximum under the law.

In the end, they are all still the children of Regine and Vronze Revelus. So even after their now-dead son cut off their 5-year-old daughter’s head and stabbed her 17-year-old sister to death, the parents chose to bury the three together. Read on.

 The 40-year-old father of five who shot to death his wife and five small children before turning the gun on himself said in a shocking suicide note faxed to a local Los Angeles TV station that the deaths were the fault of his job administrator. Just prior to his bloody rampage, Ervin Antonio Lupoe had just been fired from his job at Kaiser Permanente’s West Los Angeles Medical Center, where he and his wife were technicians.  In his letter, Lupoe said they were being investigated for “misrepresentation of our employment to an outside agency for the benefit to ourselves’s [sic], childcare.” He said the initial interview was held on Dec. 19, and when he reported for work on December 23, “I was told by my administrator … that ‘You should not even have bothered to come to work today. You should have blown your brains out.’” Read the rest here.

 Police found the mother of New York Knicks center Eddie Curry’s 3-year-old son and her infant daughter murdered in their Chicago apartment Saturday, The Chicago Tribune reports. The bodies of Nova Henry, 24, and daughter, Ava, were discovered around 6 p.m. with bullet holes, the newspaper reports. Authorities say they are searching for a “known acquaintance” of Henry’s in connection with the deaths. The 3-year-old son was found unharmed, sources told the Tribune and The New York Daily News. Who does Henry’s family member suspect? Read the rest here.

Police have charged a New Orleans man with killing his elderly mother, who had survived cancer, diabetes and hypertension. Tony M. DeClues, 52, stabbed Louise DeClues to death last week in a mad search for drug money, police told The Times-Picayune newspaper. Investigators say that the son confessed to killing his 73-year-old mother. Read the shocking details here.

The attorney for a 22-year-old Black man who was shot to death by a Bay-Area California policeman on New Year’s Day says he will file a $25 million lawsuit, and he is demanding that prosecutors charge the officer with murder. “This is the most egregious shooting that I have ever seen,” said civil rights attorney John Burris, who is known for taking on high-profile police-abuse cases in the past. A videotape (see it here. Warning: Graphic Content)taken by a passenger on the train shows an officer with the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department standing over the Hayward, Calif., man, who was lying face down and handcuffed. The officer then appears to fire a bullet into the back of Oscar Grant III as fellow officers look on. Read the rest here.

Youth could serve life if convicted of officer’s murder. The 16-year-old who police say killed an Oak Park, Mich. cop has been charged as an adult. Jonathan Belton allegedly shot officer Mason Samborski, 28, on Dec. 28 after Samborski stopped Belton for driving without a license. Oak Park cops insist that Samborski took Belton into the lot of an apartment complex to release him to an adult without arresting him. But what caused a struggle between the teen and Samborski before the officer was shot in the head is unknown. Belton turned himself in after the incident. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and is being held without bond. Samborski, who was married and dad to a small daughter, was buried this week. Belton was first arraigned as a juvenile, but could now face life in prison if convicted.

 The Jamaican dancer and choreographer who came up with the dance popular sprinter Usain Bolt used to do to celebrate a win was shot dead at a club in Kingston, Jamaica, reports Reuters. David Alexander Smith, also known as “Ice,” was shot in the head and chest after having an argument with two men. The men then stole his car keys and escaped the scene in his car, according to police. The police say they have no official motive for the shooting. Bolt danced Smith’s dance phenomenon, the “Gully Creeper,” after each win at the Beijing Olympics, where he was very successful. The West Indian nation has seen more than 1,500 people murdered just this year. Jamaica’s  murder rate per capita is one of the highest in the world.

Oprah is named PETA’s Person of the year. Oprah Winfrey, usually praised for her philanthropic work with human beings, was named the “Person of the Year” by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The Norfolk-Va.-based organized lauded Winfrey for using her “powerful voice to defend those without one,” said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. ”She has used her show to uncover horrific cases of cruelty to animals in puppy mills and on factory farms, and Oprah even used the show to highlight the cruelty-free vegan diet that she tried,” PETA wrote on its Web site.

Actor acquitted of murder. Lillo Brancato, the young actor who had perfected the role of an up-and-coming Italian mobster, was acquitted Monday in the death of a New York City Police officer who was gunned down as he attempted to stop a burglary by Brancato and an accomplice. The jury said that Brancato was guilty of first-degree attempted burglary, but did not convict him of killing officer Daniel Enchautegui, who was shot by the accomplice. The jury could have found the 32-year-old Brancato guilty of second-degree murder, since the death occurred during the commission of another felony, but there were mitigating circumstances, which the jury bought. For example, Brancato was not armed and did not know that his sidekick had a gun. The accomplice, Steven Armento, 51, was convicted by another Bronx jury on Oct. 30 of first-degree murder in firing the fatal shot into Officer Enchautegui’s chest. He was sentenced last month to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Brancato is looking at anywhere from three to 15 years in prison for attempted burglary; he’s already served more than three years and could be credited with that time. New York Supreme Court Justice Martin Marcus will sentence Brancato on Jan. 9. Yolanda Rosa, Officer Enchautegui’s sister, was outraged by the decision. “I waited three long years for this,” she said. “I’m disappointed. What message is this sending out to New York police officers today?”

Seven Russians sentenced for hate-murders. As investigators probe last week’s stabbing of an African-American exchange student in Russia, authorities sentenced seven young men who murdered 19 people in a series of hate crimes. Their prison terms were handed down Monday amid a dramatic rise in racist assaults, xenophobia and neo-Nazism in Russia, The Associated Press reports. The hate group’s leaders, Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, got 10 years – the maximum possible term since they were minors at the time of the attacks in 2006 and 2007 – and another man was sentenced to 20 years; four others got between six to 12 years, Moscow City Court spokeswoman Anna Usachyova said. The racist attacks appeared to peak earlier this month with the gruesome beheading of a Tajik migrant worker near Moscow, AP reported. Prosecutors say that the murderers preyed upon Central Asians, Caucasians and other non-Slavs with distinctly dark skin or Asian features. The group would attacked their victims on the streets and in pedestrian tunnels with hammers and other weapons, and they often videotaped their attacks and posted the clips online, AP reports. Meanwhile, the mother of 18-year-old Stanley Robinson, the Black student stabbed in the southern Russian city of Volgograd dismissed the notion that his attack was an act of random violence. She said she believes racism was the motivating factor. Stanley Robinson is in grave but stable condition in a Russian hospital, according to AP.