Grand jury hears evidence in slaying of Brooklyn boy (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A grand jury began hearing evidence on Friday against a man who confessed to butchering an 8-year-old Brooklyn boy, as the child's family thanked those who searched in vain for their son.

Behind yellow crime scene tape, police in white protective suits carried plastic and paper bags bulging with potential evidence from the Brooklyn home of Levi Aron, 35, charged in the death of Leiby Kletzky.

Less than two miles away, the Orthodox Jewish family of the 8-year-old boy who got lost on his first walk home from a religious day camp and encountered Aron began a week-long mourning ritual known as "shiva."

The family thanked the waves of people who joined the frantic search that ended with the gruesome discovery by police of the boy's severed body parts in a freezer in Aron's apartment and a dumpster.

"We are forever grateful and thankful to (God)," the family said in a statement posted outside their home in the close-knit Orthodox community of Borough Park.

"We would also like to express to each and every individual... who assisted us above and beyond physically, emotionally and spiritually - and to all from around the world, who had us in their thoughts and prayers. From the depths of our mourning hearts, thank you!"

Police declined to say what they were looking for in the home owned by Aron's family, where he lived on the third floor. Investigators scoured the contents of three computers removed from the home.

The widening search for evidence now includes Memphis, Tennessee, where Aron lived with a former wife, said Jeremy Schmetterer, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, began presenting evidence in the case to a grand jury in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn but declined to speculate on when an indictment might be returned.

Aron, held without bail on charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder and placed on a suicide watch, was ordered to undergo a psychiatric exam. He is due back in court on July 28.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Cynthia Johnston)

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Hollywood publicist slaying investigation closed (AP)

LOS ANGELES – A police investigation into the slaying of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen has been officially closed without finding any evidence that the gunman who later killed himself at a Hollywood apartment building had any accomplices, authorities said Friday.

The Beverly Hills Police Department said detectives conducted an exhaustive investigation after the shooting in November that occurred as Chasen, 64, drove home at night in her Mercedes Benz.

Authorities reviewed financial documents, 150,000 emails and texts, as well as following numerous tips.

Police assigned to the case worked more than 10,000 hours to examine every "tip, theory and legitimate lead in order to bring this investigation to conclusion," a police statement said.

Police said they are confident that ex-convict Harold Martin Smith acted alone in gunning down Chasen hours after she attended the premiere of the movie "Burlesque."

The 43-year-old career criminal killed himself on Dec. 1 when police arrived at the apartment building to question him about the Nov. 16 shooting of Chasen.

The gun used to kill Chasen was the same weapon Smith used to commit suicide, authorities said.

Police believe Smith killed the publicist as part of a robbery attempt when he stopped her car at an intersection. He apparently did not take anything and fled on a bicycle before anyone could see him in the early morning darkness.

Authorities said they reviewed security videos taken from homes along the route Chasen took that night.

Police said after the shooting that they were looking into the possibility Chasen was targeted by a hit man. Some of Chasen's friends had trouble accepting that Smith acted alone, noting his neighbors had said he boasted of killing the wealthy publicist for $10,000 — money he had not received.

Detectives recently met with Chasen's family members, who indicated they were satisfied with the investigation, police said.

Police "sincerely hope that the conclusion of this investigation will enable the family to bring closure to a most difficult chapter in their lives," the statement read.

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Ky. ex-lawmaker pleads guilty in fiancee slaying (AP)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A former Kentucky state lawmaker has pleaded guilty to murder for shooting his ex-fiance and was sentenced to life without parole.

An attorney for Steve Nunn said the son of former Kentucky Gov. Louis B. Nunn entered the plea Tuesday in a court in Lexington.

Nunn could have faced the death penalty if he'd been convicted in a trial that was scheduled to start in August. He was charged in the death of 29-year-old Amanda Ross, who was shot outside her Lexington home on Sept. 11, 2009.

Police arrested Nunn not long after Ross was found dead. Nunn was apprehended in a cemetery near his parents' graves and police said he slit his wrists and fired one shot at troopers before surrendering.

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Slaying trial opens in Pittsburgh officer deaths (AP)

PITTSBURGH – A man being tried on charges he murdered three city police officers who responded to a domestic disturbance call was a "coward" who fired extra shots just to make sure the officers were dead, a prosecutor told the jury in opening statements Monday.

Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Mark Tranquilli spoke for about 30 minutes to open what's expected to be a two-week trial before a sequestered jury. The jury, bused to Pittsburgh on Sunday, was selected earlier this month more than 150 miles away in Harrisburg to avoid any prejudice because of pretrial publicity surrounding Richard Poplawski, 24. He has pleaded not guilty.

Poplawski's mother woke him early on the morning of April 4, 2009, upset because he had failed to let some puppies out of the house before they urinated. When the argument escalated, Margaret Poplawski called 911, and while she mentioned her son had weapons, she told the dispatcher they were legal and not "in play" in the dispute, Tranquilli said.

Poplawski donned a ballistic vest and readied three weapons — a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with pellet- and rifled-slug shells, a .357 Magnum and an AK-47 assault rifle, Tranquilli said.

When Officer Paul Sciullo II arrived at what police believed was a routine disturbance call, Poplawski killed him with the shotgun, then engaged in a gun battle with a second officer, Stephen Mayhle, who was "outgunned" with only his .40-caliber Glock pistol, Tranquilli said. The third officer killed, Eric Kelly, had arrived home — about two blocks from Poplawski's residence — after an overnight shift but went to back up the others when he heard radio calls about the shootings, Tranquilli said.

"He never even got out of his SUV. Richard Poplawski was waiting for him on the high ground," Tranquilli said, noting how Poplawski fired on the officers, and at least nine others who responded to the shooting, from his house near the end of a dead-end street.

Another officer later testified that the wounded Kelly told him to "tell my wife and kids I love them" before he died.

Officer Timothy McManaway was overcome by emotion as he testified Monday, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported

"I said, `You're going to have to tell them yourself. You're going to have to fight and get through this,'" McManaway said. "I was trying to get him to fight and be angry."

Poplawski faces three umbrella counts of criminal homicide, and could face the death penalty if the jury decides any or all the shootings rise to first-degree murder.

He's also charged with nine counts each of attempted murder and assault on law officers for shooting at other police, as well as lesser charges, prosecutors said.

Public defender Lisa Middleman told the jury that some witnesses and physical evidence will contradict the police version of events and even suggested without elaborating that prosecutors haven't accounted for the actions of Poplawski's mother. Margaret Poplawski has not been charged and prosecutors have not suggested she aided her son in any way.

Middleman told the jury Tranquilli was wrongly injecting emotion into the trial by repeatedly referring to the dead officers as "fallen heroes" and accusing Poplawski of cowardice after Tranquilli said, "Richard Poplawski decided to shoot each one of (the dead officers) where they lay, just to make sure" they were dead.

Tranquilli also warned the jury to disregard evidence that SWAT officers hit Sciullo with "friendly fire" when they fired back at Poplawski because that happened "after he (Sciullo) was already dead."

"This case is not about you deciding if these men were fallen heroes. This case isn't about whether he (Poplawski) is a coward," Middleman said. "This case is about whether the prosecution has enough evidence to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt."

Tranquilli said Poplawski's statements to police and negotiators will reveal a racist bent.

Tranquilli said Poplawski used racial slurs when he spoke to police and acted "almost as if he was proud of what he had done. It was his one chance to make the history books," Tranquilli said. Officer Kelly was black.

Middleman warned the jury, which includes two black men, that the prosecution's burden of proof "is not any less because they want to throw racial epithets at you at the start of the case so you will despise the defendant."

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