• US Marine kills two colleagues at Quantico base

    A Marine opened fire on two of his comrades Thursday night at a base in Quantico, Va., before turning the gun on himself, leaving all three dead. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    By Courtney Kube and John Newland, NBC News

    A Marine opened fire on two of his comrades Thursday night at a base in Quantico, Va., before turning the gun on himself, leaving all three dead, military officials said.

    A relationship dispute was believed to be behind the shooting, which occurred in the staff barracks area of the Officer Candidates School at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Northern Virginia, a Marine official said.

    The assailant and both victims, a man and a woman, were staff members at the school and not students, a senior defense official said. The official called the incident "isolated," adding: "There was nothing random here."

    Three Marines – two men and one woman – are dead after a shooting on a Marine base in Quantico, Va., including the suspected shooter. Authorities are indicating the shooting was a result of a relationship dispute. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    The names of the dead were being withheld for 24 hours pending notification of next of kin.

    Military police and Prince William County, Va., Sheriff's Department officers responded to a report of gunshots around 10:30 p.m. local time and were on the scene within five minutes, base commander Col. David W. Maxwell said at a press conference on Friday.

    They found one Marine dead and the shooter inside the barracks, a Marine official said. At 3 a.m., officers entered the barracks and found two more bodies, including that of the shooter, the official said. The three, all active duty Marines, were pronounced dead at the scene.

    Why officers hesitated before entering the barracks remained unclear Friday morning.

    “There was a lag but I can’t go into the details about the length of the lag the occurred,” base spokesman Lt. Agustin Solivan said Friday.

    The assailant appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, base officials said.

    Authorities did not fire any shots and did not hear any shots fired, Maxwell said. “There was no standoff or barricades,” Maxwell said.

    Early reports indicated that the shooter may have barricaded himself in the barracks.

    The base had been under lockdown after the incident, but its status early Friday returned to "Code Green," meaning operations were normal.

    A message posted on Quantico's Facebook page had earlier had told residents to remain in their homes with their doors locked. Personnel on the base were notified of the situation via an emergency alert system. The base returned to normal operations at 2:30 a.m., Maxwell said.

    “Early this morning, the Secretary was saddened to learn of the shootings at Marine Corps Base Quantico,” defense department spokesman George Little said in a written statement. “His heart and his prayers are with them and their families.”

    Quantico is about 40 miles south of Washington in the Northern Virginia suburbs.

    “This is a truly tragic loss again for the Marine Corps, which has had a number of tragic losses in the last couple of weeks,” Maxwell said.

    The base provided chaplains and counselors to base residents on Friday.

    The Officer Candidates School calls itself "the first proving ground for future Marine officers." Its graduates attain the rank of 2nd lieutenant.

    It has a reputation for being challenging.

    "The mission of OCS is to train, screen and evaluate candidates, who must demonstrate a high level of leadership potential and commitment to success in order to earn a commission," the Marine Corps says on the school's website. "Officer Candidates School training will be more demanding than any you've experienced before, regardless of commissioning program."

    Matthew Barakat / AP

    The entrance to Marine Corps Base Quantico in Northern Virginia is shown early Friday after three Marines, including the suspected assailant, died in a shooting.

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    NBC News' Denise Ono, Christopher Nelson and Matthew DeLuca contributed to this report.

  • Police: Detroit Chrysler factory worker fatally stabs another, kills self

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    A Detroit Chrysler plant worker fatally stabbed a co-worker Thursday morning and then killed himself at a city park, police said.


    Police sources told NBC station WDIV that the assailant was a line worker who stabbed his union steward over a possible affair with his wife, who also works at the plant.

    Chrysler said one employee was pronounced dead at the scene at its Jefferson North Assembly plant.

    Police told WDIV that the suspect fled the factory after the 8 a.m. stabbing near the loading docks and was found dead at Belle Isle, a park, where he shot himself.

    DetroitNews.com identified the stabbing victim as Keith Readus and the suspected assailant as Jeff Hunter.

    The Jefferson North plant employs just over 3,000 workers on two shifts. The 3-million-square-foot plant makes the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango full-size SUVs.

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    Chrysler spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said no other employees were injured.

    This article includes reporting by Reuters and The Associated Press.

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  • Mercy killing or murder? Attorney says Ohio man accused in hospital shooting acted out of love

    Summit County Sheriff Department

    John Wise is charged with first degree murder.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    An Ohio man accused of fatally shooting his wife of 45 years in a hospital intensive care unit acted out of love, his attorney and a longtime co-worker said on Wednesday.


    According to police, John Wise was armed with a gun when he went to the neuroscience ICU at Akron General Medical Center in Akron, Ohio, and shot Barbara Wise, 65, in the head. A doctor who was also in the room at the time wasn't injured. 

    Wise’s attorney, Paul Adamson, says Wise acted out of mercy.

    "I'm thoroughly convinced he's a good man. I think his past history bears that out," Adamson told the Cleveland Plain Dealer after a court appearance on Wednesday.

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    "Forty-five years of marriage, blessed to be deeply in love with his wife throughout those 45 years, and I am absolutely confident that everything that he's ever done for his wife has been done out of deep love, including the events that just recently transpired."

    Terry Henderson, 58, who said he worked with John Wise, of Massillon, Ohio, for 30 years, told The Associated Press that he believes Wise wanted to spare his wife from suffering when he shot her Saturday in her hospital bed. She died the next morning.

    Barbara Wise had been admitted to the hospital last week with a non-disclosed, life-threatening condition.

    Husband charged in fatal hospital shooting of wife: 'Is she not dead?'

    Henderson said Wise, 66, was a good husband without a hint of domestic violence. He said Wise never wanted to become disabled in a nursing home and that Barbara Wise felt the same way. 

    Wise appeared before an Akron municipal court judge via video from jail Wednesday morning for hi arraignment. The original attempted murder charge against him was upgraded to aggravated murder after results of Barbara Wise's autopsy. 

    No plea was entered. Bond was set at $1 million. Wise must return to court Aug. 22.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Husband charged in fatal hospital shooting of wife: 'Is she not dead?'

    By NBC News wire services

    Summit County Sheriff Department

    John Wise is accused of shooting his wife in the head in a hospital intensive care unit.

    AKRON, Ohio -- An Ohio man accused of shooting his wife in the head in a hospital intensive care unit appeared confused about the attempted murder charge against him on Tuesday and asked the judge, “Is she not dead?”

    John Wise, 66, of Massillon, made his first appearance in Akron Municipal Court on Tuesday. He appeared before the judge via video from jail on an aggravated attempted murder charge, according to The Associated Press.

    During the court proceedings, Wise appeared perplexed about the charge against him, asking whether his wife of 45 years was indeed dead. 

    Visiting Judge Marvin Shapiro didn't answer his question. "We're going to get you an attorney who will be able to answer all of your questions for you, sir," Shapiro told him, the AP reported.

    Wise is due back for arraignment on Wednesday. His bond was set at $1 million. Prosecutors say they will make a final determination on the appropriate charge in the case after a grand jury conducts an inquiry into the shooting.

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    Autopsy results released Tuesday determined the cause of Barbara Wise’s death on Sunday was a gunshot to the head. The case was ruled a homicide by Summit County medical examiner, clearing the way for prosecutors to consider upping the charge against John Wise to murder.

    Police say Wise shot his wife while standing at her bedside Saturday evening in the neuroscience ICU at Akron General Medical Center. Police said Barbara Wise had been in critical condition for several days.

    Wise surrendered to hospital security after the shooting and has cooperated with investigators, according to police.


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    Jim Gosky, spokesperson for the medical center, said he could not give the reason for Barbara Wises’ admittance to the ICU or her length of stay, citing patient privacy laws

    Prosecutor Craig Morgan said Wise made a statement to detectives after his arrest but he would not go into detail about what was said.

    "We know this is not a random act of violence," Morgan told Reuters. "Everyone would like to label this as a mercy killing but we need to clarify facts.”

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • No charges for Texas father who killed daughter's alleged molester

    Carolina Astrain / Victoria Advocate via AP

    File photo from June 16 showing a building near Shiner, Texas, where authorities say a father beat to death with his fists a man molesting his 5-year-old daughter on June 9.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    SHINER, Texas -- Hearing his 5-year-old daughter crying from behind a barn, a father ran and discovered the unthinkable: A man molesting her. The father pulled the man off his daughter, authorities say, and started pummeling him to death with his fists.

    With his daughter finally safe, the father frantically called 911, begging a dispatcher to find his rural ranch and send an ambulance. "Come on! This guy is going to die on me!" the man is heard screaming on the 911 call. "I don't know what to do!"

    A recording of the tape was played during a news conference Tuesday where the Lavaca County district attorney and sheriff announced that the father will not face charges.

    In declining to indict the 23-year-old father in the June 9 killing of Jesus Mora Flores, a Lavaca County grand jury reached the same conclusion as investigators and many of the father's neighbors: He was authorized to use deadly force to protect his daughter.

    "It's sad a man had to die," said Michael James Veit, 48, who lives across the street from where the attack happened in this small community run on ranching and the Shiner beer brewery. "But I think anybody would have done that."

    Father's desperate 911 call
    The family ranch is so remote that on the 911 tape, the father is heard screaming at a dispatcher who couldn't locate the property. At one point, he tells the dispatcher he's going to put the man in his truck and drive him to a hospital.

    "He's going to die!" the father screams, swearing at the dispatcher. "He's going to f------ die!"

    The tense, nearly five-minute call begins with the father saying he "beat up" a man found raping his daughter. The father grows increasingly frazzled, shouting into the phone so loudly at times that the call often becomes inaudible.

    The Associated Press is not identifying the father in order to protect the daughter's identity. The AP generally does not identify victims of sexual assault.

    "He's a peaceable soul," V'Anne Huser, the father's attorney, told reporters at the Lavaca County Courthouse.

    The San Antonio Express reported that Huser said the father “had no intention to kill anyone on that day.”

    “In our opinion, the story is over. You will not get an interview from (the father) or his family,” she said, according to the paper, asking for the family to be left alone.

    The attack happened on the family's ranch off a quiet, two-lane county road between the farming towns of Shiner and Yoakum.

    Ran toward his child's screams
    A statement released by the district attorney said a witness who saw Flores "forcibly carrying" the girl into a secluded area scrambled to find the father.

    Running toward his daughter's screams, the father pulled Flores off his child and "inflicted several blows to the man's head and neck area," investigators said.

    Emergency crews responding to the father's 911 call found Flores' pants and underwear pulled down on his lifeless body. The girl was examined at a hospital, and Lavaca County District Attorney Heather McMinn said forensic evidence and witness accounts corroborated the father's story that his daughter was being sexually molested.

    The father was never arrested, but the killing was investigated as a homicide.

    Philip Hilder, a Houston criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, said he would have been surprised if the grand jury had decided to indict the father. Hilder said Texas law provides several justifications for the use of deadly force, including if someone commits a sexual assault.

    "The grand jury was not about to indict this father for protecting his daughter," he said.

    Authorities said the family had hired Flores before to help with horses on the ranch. He was not born in the U.S., but was here legally with a green card. Attempts to locate Flores' relatives through public records were unsuccessful.

    On Tuesday, a new "No Trespassing" sign was freshly tacked onto a gate barring entrance down a gravelly, shrub-canopied path leading to the barn and chicken coop on the ranch, which belonged to the father's dad.

    At the father's house, the front yard could pass for a children's playground: Blue pinwheels sunk into patchy grass, an above-ground swimming pool, a swing set, a trampoline and a couple of ropes dangling from a tree for swinging. A partial privacy fence is painted powder blue.

    No one answered at the father's home. A few miles away, at a home listed as belonging to the father's sister, a woman shouted through the front door that the family had nothing to say. Huser, the father's attorney, told reporters that neither the father nor anyone else in the family would ever give interviews and asked that they be left alone.

    Veit, who lives near the ranch, described the father as easygoing and polite — down to always first asking permission to search Veit's property for animals that had wandered off the ranch, even though the families have long known each other.

    Veit's son was a classmate of the father's at Shiner High School in a graduating class of about two dozen. Veit, 48, said the young father was never known to be in trouble.

    "Just like a regular kid, went to dances, drank beer like the rest of the kids around here," Veit said.

    'Traumatized for life'
    Shiner, a town of about 2,000 people about 80 miles east of San Antonio, revolves around the Spoetzl Brewery that makes Shiner, one of the nation's best-selling independent beers. Even gas stations here sell it on tap.

    Flores' death is only the sixth homicide the Lavaca County Sheriff's Office has investigated in the last eight years. Shiner residents boast their squeaky-clean image on a highway welcome sign: "The Cleanest Little City in Texas."

    At Werner's Restaurant, customer Gail Allen said she didn't want to speak for the whole town, though her comments echoed what others said.

    "The father has gone through enough," said Allen, 59, who has nine grandchildren. "The little girl is going to be traumatized for life, and the father, too, for what happened. He was protecting his family. Any parent would do that."

    Patrons at Howard's Convenience Store told the San Antonio Express that they also backed the father.

    “I think it's great, they should have given him a medal for what he did, defending his daughter,” Leroy Wagner, 79, told the paper.

    “He was being a responsible father, any responsible father would have done the same thing,” added Joe Marek, 59, a local electrician.

    And Victor Casper, 65, a retired county worker, told the Epxress, “If it was my kids, I would have done the same thing. I would have defended them, too.”

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Mississippi executes killer who fatally stabbed 4 of his nieces and nephews

    By msnbc.com news services

    PARCHMAN, Miss. -- A Mississippi man convicted of killing his four young nieces and nephews in a 1990 stabbing rampage was executed Tuesday, despite pleas from his two sisters to spare the brother who killed their children.

    Henry "Curtis" Jackson Jr. was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. CDT (7:13 p.m. ET) Tuesday after receiving an injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, officials said.

    AP

    Henry Curtis Jackson Jr. did not request a last meal and ate none of the standard dinner offered to him, corrections officials said.

    Clad in a red prison jumpsuit as he lay strapped to a gurney, Jackson was asked if he wanted to make a statement.

    "No, I don't," he responded as family members sat somberly in a nearby witness room.

    Jackson's sister, Glenda Kuyoro, stifled a sob when she walked into the witness room earlier and saw her brother on the gurney. Jackson's eyes were closed when the witnesses arrived and he never looked in the direction of his family.

    Earlier, the 47-year-old inmate had spent the day receiving relatives, including one of the sisters whose two children were slain and who survived the stabbing attack. The slain children ranged from 2 to 5 and were killed as Jackson reportedly was trying to steal his mother's safe while she was away at church, court records showed.

    Jackson was the fourth person executed this year in the state and the 19th person executed in the nation. 

    He did not request a last meal and ate none of the standard dinner offered to him, corrections officials said. He also declined a sedative ahead of the execution. 

    Clemency denied
    Late Tuesday afternoon, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant declined to stop the execution though he said he was "deeply touched" by requests for clemency from the sisters and his brother-in-law.

    In Mississippi, the governor has the sole authority to grant clemency and can also commute death sentences to life in prison.

    "There is no question that Mr. Jackson committed these heinous crimes, and there is no clear and convincing evidence that compels me to grant clemency," Bryant said.


    His statement added: "One of these sisters was a stabbing victim, and both of the sisters are mothers of the murdered children. However, as governor, I have the duty to see that justice is carried out."

    Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said at a penitentiary briefing earlier Tuesday that the inmate acknowledged the crime and was talkative as he received relatives. Visitors included his sister Regina Jackson, who was stabbed five times and survived the attack that killed her two daughters and two nephews.

    Regina Jackson had met with the governor Monday and pleaded for her brother's life. She also wrote Bryant a letter last month saying she "just can't take any more killing."

    "As a mother who lost two babies, all I'm asking is that you not make me go through the killing of my brother," she wrote.

    'I forgave my brother'
    Kuyoro and her husband, Andrew, also had asked Bryant to spare the inmate in a letter dated May 15.

    "We are the victims in this case, and we are begging you not to let Curtis be killed. You can keep him in Parchman forever, but please don't put our family through this horrible execution," the Kuyoros had written earlier.

    After the execution Regina Jackson, who was one of the witnesses, said: "I forgave my brother. I love my brother ... God says we got to forgive in order for Him to forgive us."

    The attack took place Nov. 1, 1990, at Jackson's mother's home in the Delta region.

    The mother was at church that day, and Regina Jackson was there with her two daughters and four nieces and nephews. Her two daughters and two nephews were stabbed to death, records showed. Another niece was so severely injured that she was a paraplegic until her recent death.

    Jackson has said he doesn't remember stabbing the children, but there was testimony at his September 1991 trial that he cut the phone line before going in the house, then demanded money and began the attack, according to the court record.

    Regina Jackson testified at trial that she lapsed in and out of consciousness after being tied up and stabbed in the neck, but she could hear her brother dragging a safe down a hall. The noise awoke 5-year-old Dominique, one of her daughters.

    "Regina testified that Jackson called Dominique to him, told her that he loved her, stabbed her, and tossed her body to the floor," according to the court record. "Jackson returned to Regina, stabbing her in the neck and twisting the knife, at which point she pretended to be dead until she heard him leave."

    Jackson subsequently surrendered to police. He was convicted of four counts of capital murder at trial and sentenced to death.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Bellevue, Wash., police say man walks into station, confesses to killing wife

    By msnbc.com staff

    A man in his 70s walked into the Bellevue, Wash., police station Friday and told officers he had killed his wife two days earlier, local media reported.

    “He came and turned himself in,” police spokeswoman Carla Iafrate said, according to a Seattle Times report late Friday. “Detectives confirmed that and so they’ve been investigating it since this afternoon.”


    Police said the man turned himself in around 3 p.m. and police later found a woman’s body in a Bellevue home, NBC station KING said.

    The husband and wife reportedly were both born in 1940, the Times said. Their names were not immediately released.

    Neighbors told KING that the couple had a dispute two years earlier but it was resolved. However, they said, the wife asked neighbors to call 911 if they saw her husband come within 100 feet of the home.

    Bellevue, a city of about 122,000, is an eastside Seattle suburb.

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  • Woman admits to killing pregnant mother, taking baby from womb

    AP

    Kathy Coy is accused of killing a pregnant woman she befriended and taking her baby.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- A Kentucky woman on Friday pleaded guilty but mentally ill to killing an expectant mother and taking her baby.

    Kathy Coy of Morgantown cried as she entered the plea in Warren Circuit Court. Family and friends of the victim, 21-year-old Jamie Stice, looked on, all wearing pink ribbons.

    Coy pleaded guilty to three counts — murder, capital kidnapping and kidnapping. The plea deal calls for her to receive life in prison without parole when she's sentenced March 1.

    Stice's body found off a dirt road in Warren County near Bowling Green on April 14, a day after she was seen leaving her house with Coy. Authorities say Coy had befriended Slice and told her she would take her shopping. Instead, authorities say, she drove Stice to a wooded area, subdued her with a stun gun, slit Stice's wrists and throat and carved out her fetus.

    Investigators said Coy showed up at a local hospital with the infant but showed no signs of having given birth.

    According to court records, Coy first insisted that she had given birth to the baby, then claimed that she had bought the child. Police searched her home and found links to two pregnant women on Coy's Facebook page, one of whom was Stice. After further questioning, Coy led police to Stice's body.

    The boy survived the attack and Stice's mother, Jeannie Stice, told The Associated Press on Friday he is healthy and thriving. The child lives with his father, she said, but Stice's family takes him every other weekend. In a recent photography, the chubby, smiling child was seen riding on his father's shoulders.

    The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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  • Teen gets life for strangling, stabbing girl, 9, in thrill kill

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Cole County sheriff via AP

    Alyssa Bustamante confessed to murdering a young neighbor.

    JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri -- A teenager who confessed to strangling, cutting and stabbing a 9-year-old neighbor because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

    Alyssa Bustamante, 18, had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the October 2009 slaying of Elizabeth Olten in their small Missouri town. In her diary, she described the experience as "pretty enjoyable."

    Bustamante had been charged with first-degree murder. By pleading guilty to the lesser charges, she avoided a trial and the possibility of spending her life in an adult prison with no chance of release.

    After the judge delivered the ruling, Bustamante spoke directly to the girl's family, NBC affiliate KOMU TV reported.

    "I just want you guys to know that I really am sorry for everything," Bustamante said. "I know that words can never be enough and they can never adequately describe how horrible I feel."

    Bustamante was 15 when she confessed to strangling Elizabeth, repeatedly stabbing her in the chest and slicing the girl's throat. She led police to the shallow grave where she had concealed Elizabeth's body under a blanket of leaves in the woods.

    Background report, video from NBC affiliate KOMU TV

    The teenager's defense attorneys had argued that Bustamante's use of the antidepressant Prozac had made her more prone to violence. They said she had suffered from depression for years and once attempted suicide by overdosing on painkillers.

    But prosecutors noted that Bustamante had dug two graves several days in advance. Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified that the teenager told him "she wanted to know what it felt like" to kill someone.

    Prozac defense used in teen's trial

    Prosecutors also cited journal entries in which Bustamante described the exhilaration of killing Elizabeth.

    "I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead," Bustamante wrote in her diary, which was read in court by a handwriting expert. "I don't know how to feel atm. It was ahmazing. As soon as you get over the 'ohmygawd I can't do this' feeling, it's pretty enjoyable. I'm kinda nervous and shaky though right now. Kay, I gotta go to church now ... lol."

    Bustamante then headed off to a youth dance at her church while a massive search began for the missing girl.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Second Conn. home invasion killer is sentenced to death

    By NBC News and news services

    AP file

    Joshua Komisarjevsky,

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A Connecticut man was sentenced Friday to die for killing a woman and her two daughters during a night of terror in their suburban home, a gruesome crime that unsettled the suburbs and halted momentum to abolish the death penalty in the state.

    Joshua Komisarjevsky will be joining Steven Hayes on death row for killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. He is scheduled to be executed in July.

    The girls were tied to their beds and doused in gasoline before the house was set ablaze; they died of smoke inhalation. Komisarjevsky was convicted of the killings and of sexually assaulting Michaela.

    The only survivor, Dr. William Petit, was beaten with a baseball bat and tied up but escaped.

    "I will never find peace within. My life will be a continuation of the hurt I caused," Komisarjevsky said in court. "The clock is now ticking and I owe a debt I cannot repay."

    Komisarjevsky said he walked out of court condemned to die by 12 members of the community. 

    "It's a surreal experience, being condemned to die," Komisarjevsky said.

    Forgiveness is not his to have, he said, and he needs to forgive his worst enemy -- himself.

    Read story at NBCConnecticut.com

    Before the sentencing, Judge Jon Blue said sentencing another human being to death is the most somber task a judge can have.

    The court then heard some emotional victim impact statements from the Hawke and Petit families.

    Petit read his statement as a slide show of his family played on the screen.

    Petit called the crime a "personal holocaust" as he testified during the sentencing hearing. He said his wife was his friend and confidante, and a wonderful mother. He also noted that Hayley would have been in medical school by now and that Michaela loved to cook and sing.

    "I lost my family and my home," he said. "They were three special people. Your children are your jewels."

    Michaela came into the world smiling, Petit said. He recently received a card from one of Michaela's friends. It said it was sad to know that she wouldn't be in 10th grade this year.

    "I miss her running to the door and yelling 'Dada's home,'” Petit said.

    'Was it worth the price?'
    The Rev. Richard Hawke spoke directly to the convicted killer and said he’s presided over many funerals, but never dreamed he would bury his daughter and grandchildren. It was the worst thing he’s had to go through.  

    "Was it worth the price?" he asked at one point.

    If Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela could endure the pain that Komisarjevsky put them through, their families can endure the pain of the trials, Hawke said.

    “You have not only destroyed your family, you have destroyed your own and destroyed a noble family name,” Hawke told the man who killed his family members.

    The statement from Jennifer’s mother, Marybelle Hawke, was also played in court and she said the love of family will carry them through.

    The Petit and Hawke families left court before the sentence was handed down.

    Lawyers fought for jurors to hear videotaped testimony from Komisarjevsky’s 9-year-old daughter, but the defendant made a plea against it. 

    Last month, a jury delivered the death verdict for Komisarjevsky after finding him guilty of the crimes. On Friday, the judge handed down that sentence.

    The Associated Press and NBCConnecticut.com contributed to this report.

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  • Questions linger in US soldier's death: Was it a game?

    freedomremembered.com

    Sgt. Matthew Gallagher.

    By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

    An Army soldier who says he killed his roommate during a pistol game called “quick draw” remains free even though he's charged with murder, there are questions about evidence in the case, and the dead soldier’s family is calling for answers.

    Sgt. Matthew Gallagher, a 22-year-old from Falmouth, Mass., was shot in the head by Sgt. Brent McBride, 25, on June 26, 2011, on their base in Al-Kut, Iraq, according to the Army.

    But the details and circumstances of Gallagher’s death remain under investigation.

    When first notified of Gallagher’s death weeks after the incident, his widow, Katie Gallagher, and his mother, Cheryl Ruggiero, were left with the impression he was killed in combat.

    Last month, in testimony at an investigative hearing in Texas that was recounted by the family in the Boston Globe, they were told Gallagher was playing a game when he pointed his 9mm pistol at McBride, and asked,  “What would you do now?”

    McBride drew his own gun and pointed at Gallagher’s head, then pulled the trigger, killing his roommate.

    McBride’s attorney called Gallagher’s death "a tragic accident." The attorney said McBride and Gallagher were friends who often played the dangerous game and his client did not know his gun was loaded, according to a report from the Cape Cod Times.

    McBride was initially charged with murder, manslaughter, negligent homicide, failure to obey a lawful order, and dereliction of duty.

    An Army spokesman at Fort Hood, Texas, where the McBride’s unit is based, told msnbc.com on Wednesday that no further legal proceedings are set “pending a review” of the evidence by Army investigators. Military officials have not said if McBride will face court martial.

    Gallagher’s family members still seek answers to the killing and doubt McBride’s story about what happened.

    “If it was just a game gone awry, I would say it’s two lives ruined,’’ Ruggiero told the Boston Globe. “This is all one big question mark to me, and all I want is answers.’’

    Ruggiero points out the McBride said he was two feet away from her son when he fired, but a medical examiner’s report said that the gun was pressed to her son’s head.

    Meanwhile, McBride remains on active duty at Fort Hood, according to the Cape Cod Times.

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  • Santa Claus killings: Financially strapped dad planned family massacre, Texas police say

    By NBCDFW.com

    A father dressed as Santa Claus arrived to his family's Christmas party with two guns, executed his entire family and then killed himself -- and planned the entire thing, police said Tuesday.

    Police believe the Christmas Day massacre in Grapevine, Texas, which left seven people dead still surrounded by Christmas presents and wrapping paper, was premeditated, Grapevine Police Sgt. Robert Eberling said.

    Late Tuesday afternoon, Grapevine police officially released the name of the gunman and his victims.

    Police confirm what family friends said Monday, that Azizolah "Bob" Yazdanpanah, 56, fired the fatal shots in the murder-suicide.

    Grapevine police identified the victims as his wife, Fatemah "Nasrin" Rahmati, 55; their daughter, Nargis "Nona" Yazdanpanah, 19; and their son, Ali Yazdanpanah, 14. Nasrin's sister, Zohreh Rahmati, 58; her husband, Mohamad Hossein Zarei, 59; and their daughter, Sahra Fatemah Zarei, 22; were also killed, police confirmed.

    See video, read the original story at NBCDFW.com

    Police received a 911 call from an apartment in the 2500 block of Hall Johnson Road on Christmas morning. When officers arrived, they found the door locked from the inside, and the worst crime in Grapevine history.

    Police recovered two weapons on the scene -- a Smith and Wesson 915 model 9 mm pistol with a 15-round magazine, and a Glock 23 .40-caliber pistol with a 10-round clip, according to Eberling.

    Both guns were used in the murder-suicide, but Eberling would not say how many shots were fired; only saying that there were still bullets in both guns.

    Last year, a bank foreclosed on Bob Yazdanpanah's house, and he separated from his wife in the March.

    Police had previously said a text message prior to the shooting indicated Bob Yazdanpanah was probably invited to the party, but police on Tuesday afternoon changed their story.

    Police now say Bob Yazdanpanah apparently was not invited.

    At 11:16 a.m., one of the victims sent a text message to a friend indicating who was at the gathering at the apartment. The text message mentioned the gunman's name and that he was dressed as Santa. Police said there was no indication of fear or concern in the text.

    Eighteen minutes later, someone placed a call to 911 from a landline inside the apartment.  Investigators could make out a muffled cry for help in the background, Eberling said.

    All of the victims were found in the same room with no sign of a struggle, according to Eberling, but he said some of the victims had defensive wounds that indicate they tried to shield themselves from the bullets.

    Police will wait for the Tarrant County Medical Examiner to release the identities of the victims,  Eberling said.

    The gunman had some prior dealings with at least two other police departments but not Grapevine Police, according to Eberling. He did not say what kind of dealings, or when or how many incidents there were.

    Investigators are still piecing together information, but Eberling said they aren't sure of a motive and may never know what led to the worst crime in Grapevine history.

    Friends paint picture of loving family in turmoil
    Yazdanpanah married Fatemah "Nasrin" Rahmati in 1987, according to court records. They had a daughter, Nargis "Nona," 19, who graduated from Colleyville Heritage High School in May and a son, Ali, 15, a high school freshman. All four are believed to be among the dead.

    Neighbors say the family seemed tight-knit, and Aziz Yazdanpanah seemed protective of his children.

    "He was pretty outgoing," said neighbor Fred Ditmars. "If you saw him, he'd say 'hi' to you and everything."

    "It seemed like their whole existence was about family, so it's utterly shocking to me," said another neighbor, Terri Baum, whose daughter attended school with his daughter.

    A close friend of the Yazdanpanah family said Fatemah "Nasrin" Rahmati's sister Zohreh, her husband Hossein Zarei and their 22-year-old daughter Sahra were also killed.

    Sahra (pictured left in blue) was a pre-med student at the University of Texas at Arlington, and according to family friends she was a part of the Tri Delta sorority at UTA.

    "Bob loved his kids. And I can't even fathom that that's what happened," Baum said.

    The mother, Fatemah "Nasrin" Rahmati, worked the past four years doing manicures at a salon on Southlake's town square. The manager said she often talked about her family, but never in a bad way.

    Police cautioned the investigation is far from over.

    NBC 5's Scott Gordon, Ray Villeda and Ben Russell contributed to this report

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