Pool / REUTERS

Defendant Christian Gerhartsreiter from Germany listens to the prosecutor during his murder trial at the Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles in this file photo taken March 18, 2013.

A man who blended into wealthy East Coast circles by posing as a member of the famous Rockefeller family was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder in the 1985 killing of a Southern California man whose remains were unearthed decades later in his family's backyard.

Jurors deliberated for about one day in the case of Christian Gerhartsreiter, who used several aliases that included Clark Rockefeller — a name that allowed him to fraternize with members of high society after he left Southern California following the disappearance of John and Linda Sohus.

John Sohus' remains were found by a construction crew nine years after he and his wife Linda disappeared. A father-son work crew found the remains -- Sohus' skull was in two plastic bags -- when they were building a pool in the backyard of the Sohus family's San Marino home.

Ellen Sohus, the victim's step-sister, spoke about her brother outside the courtroom. She remembered him as "the original nerd," who would set up electronic equipment and other gadgets for her.

"He was gentle, fun loving and curious — he knew everything," Sohus said.

Linda Sohus has never been located, and defense attorneys attempted to cast her as a suspect in the case.

Prosecutors presented three weeks of circumstantial evidence during the trial. In their closing argument, they told jurors that all the evidence pointed to Gerhartsreiter -- not Linda Sohus.

"The jurors rejected what was unreasonable," said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian.

Gerhartsreiter faces a penalty of 27 years to life in prison.

The German national moved to the United States in the late 1970s. He was a tenant on the Sohus' property in the upscale community (map) southeast of Pasadena at the time of the couple's disappearance.

Gerhartsreiter left Southern California for Connecticut in Sohus' vehicle and attempted to assume another life on the East Coast, according to prosecutors. The timeline of events -- including Gerhartsreiter's activities in Southern California and on the East Coast -- was presented to jurors during the trial in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.

"What I have now are answers to questions that I never thought I would have answers to," Ellen Sohus said. "What happened to John? Who's responsible? And, what the defendant continued to do after he left San Marino."

He adopted the "Rockefeller" alias in an effort to move in wealthy circles, according to prosecutors. Defense attorneys argued  the defendant's aliases have nothing to do with Sohus' death, and that he is just one of many people who moved to Los Angeles to "reinvent themselves."

Gerhartsreiter called himself "Chichester" in the early 1980s when he moved to Southern California. He said he was a film student at USC and claimed he was related to Sir Francis Chichester, a famed British adventurer.

Gerhartsreiter was serving time for the kidnapping in Boston when investigators connected him to the Sohus case.

Two men accused of threatening officials in unrelated cases in Kaufman County, Texas, both say they are upstanding citizens who would never hurt anyone.

Investigators say Nick Morale, 56, of Terrell, phoned in a threat to a tip line established for the investigation into the deaths of the Kaufman County district attorney and his wife.

Morale told NBC 5 that he called the Crime Stoppers tip line with a warning, not a threat. He said he wanted to report a conversation he had with a member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Paris, Texas, but ended up leaving a partial message because his dog knocked his phone from his hand.

He said the gang member told him that a judge and Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland were the targets of the Jan. 31 shooting that killed Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse.

Morale said he chalked up the conversation to boastful ranting until McLelland and his wife were found shot to death in their home.

'The next victim'
Morale said he then decided to call Crime Stoppers to tell someone what he had heard. He said he called the tip line and said, "The next victim is judge" before his dog knocked the phone out of his hand. The phone fell two stories and broke, he said.

Robert Miller, 52, also of Terrell, was arrested Thursday on a charge of making a terroristic threat in connection with a Facebook posting and an email. Investigators said the posting made a threat to the safety of an assistant district attorney.

Miller said he sent what he called an op-ed about the Kaufman County courthouse and members of the district attorney's office to news media, including NBC 5. In an interview, he denied that the post was a threat of any kind.

The Facebook post contains harsh words for courthouse employees and warns that a specific assistant district attorney could be the next prosecutor targeted.

Miller said he only referred to the prosecutor by name because the person was listed third on the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office's website, beneath the names of McLelland and Hasse.

Read more from NBCDFW.com

In the post, Miller suggested that the assistant district attorney seek other employment, perhaps in another state.

He said the post was his opinion and that interactions at the courthouse prompted him to write the post. It was only intended to be an expression of his First Amendment rights, he said.

Neither Miller nor Morale are suspects in the McLellands' deaths or are connected to them in any way, say authorities investigating the case.

Both say that the current climate of fear and a zero-tolerance stance for anything that can be construed as a threat against the courthouse is what landed them behind bars.

Miller and Morale are each being held on a single count of making a terroristic threat, which can carry state and federal penalties. Bond for each was set at $1 million.

Related:

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'Why Kaufman county?' Locals wonder about DA murder

Colorado Dept. of Corrections / AP

Police said Thomas Guolee's name surfaced during an investigation into the death of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements.

DENVER -- Two more men connected to a violent white supremacist gang are being sought in connection with the slaying of Colorado's prisons chief, and authorities are warning officers that they are armed and dangerous.

The search comes about two weeks after prison gang member Evan Ebel — a suspect in the death of Department of Corrections chief Tom Clements on March 19 and of Nathan Leon, a pizza deliveryman, two days earlier — was killed in a shootout with Texas deputies.

While it's not clear whether the gang, the 211 Crew, is linked to the killing, the warning bulletin issued late Wednesday by the El Paso County Sheriff's Department is the first official word that other gang members may be involved.

James Lohr, 47, and Thomas Guolee, 31, aren't being called suspects in Clements' death, but their names have surfaced during the investigation, El Paso County sheriff's Lt. Jeff Kramer said. He wouldn't elaborate.

Kramer said the two are known associates of the 211 gang.

Ebel is the only suspect that investigators have named in Clements' death, but they haven't given a motive. They have said they're looking into his connection to the gang he joined while in prison, and whether that was connected to the attack.

Colo. Dept. Of Corrections / AP, file

Evan Spencer Ebel led Texas authorities on a 100 mph car chase that ended in a shootout on March 21. He has been linked to the slaying of Colorado's state prison chief.

"Investigators are looking at a lot of different possibilities. We are not stepping out and saying it's a hit or it's not a hit. We're looking at all possible motives," Kramer said Wednesday.

Investigators have said the gun Ebel used in the Texas shootout was also used to kill Clements when the prisons chief answered the front door of his home.

Sheriff's investigators said they don't know the whereabouts of Lohr and Guolee or if they are together, but Kramer said it's possible one or both of them could be headed to Nevada or Texas.

Both are wanted on warrants unrelated to Clements' death, and authorities believe they are armed and dangerous.

Guolee is a parolee who served time for intimidating a witness and giving a pawnbroker false information, among other charges, court records show. Lohr was being sought on warrants out of Las Animas County for a bail violation and a violation of a protection order, according to court records.

The 211 gang is one of the most vicious white supremacist groups operating in U.S. prisons, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups. It was founded in 1995 to protect white prisoners from attacks and operates only in Colorado, according to the center.

Ebel joined the 211 Crew after he entered prison in 2005 for a string of assault and menacing charges that combined for an eight-year sentence. He was supposed to spend an extra four years in prison for punching a prison officer in the face in 2006, but a clerical error led that sentence to be recorded as one to be served simultaneously with his previous sentences.

He was released on parole Jan. 28.

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A New Jersey man who admitted to murdering a teenager 23 years ago said he turned himself over to police because the guilt has haunted him and made his life "a living hell."

Steven Goff on Monday confessed to police that he stabbed 15-year-old Frederick Hart on May 7, 1990 in Galloway, N. J., according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.  

The boy's body was not found until December of 1991, and was so badly decomposed that it was unclear what the cause of death was.

In a phone interview from jail with Atlantic City' NBC40.net, Goff said he made the admission because the memory made life "a living hell."

"I wasn't worried about getting caught. I had no chance of getting caught from this crime, whatsoever. I was away scot–free but you know, that doesn't mean that it was away in my mind," he said.

But it may have been more than just guilt.

Alan Rickel, a friend close to Goff, told the Associated Press that the confessed killer would be haunted by a vision of the dead boy's mother. 

"He couldn't bear it anymore," Rickel told The Associated Press. "He told me he had nightmares. He'd go to sleep and see the kid's mother staring in his face."

Rickel said he knew his friend had psychological problems and thought he was in need of medication. He helped Goff return to New Jersey from northern Michigan, where the troubled man had been contemplating a run for the Canadian border. But soon after Goff returned to the Garden State, Rickel got a call from Galloway Township police saying his friend had admitted to the killing.

In a court appearance on Monday to be presented with charged against him, Goff told the judge, "I did the crime" and said he wanted to expedite the judicial process.  

But Judge Michael A. Donio cut Goff off during the unprovoked confession, warning "anything you say here today can be used against you."

As the judge read back the details of the crime, Goff wept.

Goff, who was 18 at the time of the killing, is charged with murder and unlawful possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He is being held on $1 million bail.

Reza A. Marvashti / The Free Lance-Star via AP

Michael Wayne Hash is escorted to a police car in Culpeper, Va. on March 14, 2012. A Culpeper County Circuit Judge ordered Hash's release after his life sentence for killing an elderly woman was tossed out by a federal judge. That judge overturned Hash's 2001 murder conviction, citing prosecutorial and police misconduct and an inadequate defense.

The number of cases in which prosecutors or police helped exonerate people convicted of crimes surged in 2012, passing 50 percent for the first time, a research group said Wednesday.

Authorities led or cooperated on investigations into 34 of last year’s 63 known exonerations, the group said.

“To the extent that they are focused … on correcting errors that have been made, that’s really good news,” said Professor Sam Gross, editor of The National Registry of Exonerations, a project of the law schools at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. “That means that more innocent people will be released and that we’ll, over time, learn more about the process that produces mistakes like this and avoid more tragic errors.”

The development may reflect the spread of what are often known as Conviction Integrity Units in district attorney’s offices in major cities across the country as well as changes in state laws making it easier to do post-conviction DNA testing, according to the registry, which launched last year and provides information about exonerations since 1989.

Gross said it was an important change, noting that police and prosecutors are the “central actors” in the criminal justice system and had the key role of investigating crimes and pursuing justice. “They have more information; they have more power than anybody else,” said Gross.

But Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, took exception to the report’s findings, particularly that it was the first time law enforcement helped in a majority of such cases.

“It’s offensive because that’s our job all the time is to … hold the guilty accountable, but our job is (also) to make sure that the innocent are acquitted or exonerated,” he said. “We do that in every case.”

He also objected to some of the exonerations, saying that in decades-old crimes being challenged today, there were bars to prosecutors re-trying these cases, such as dead witnesses or lost evidence.

“A number of these people are not innocent,” he said. “I can’t stress this enough because you have victims out there. … If you live through that kind of stuff it’s maddening.”

He also noted that the 1,089 exonerations found by the registry from 1989 to 2012 was a small number compared to the more than 10 million felony cases that prosecutors nationwide handle annually.

Man held for 42 years in deadly Arizona hotel fire freed from prison

The registry uses its own criteria to determine when someone has been exonerated, since there is no such legal category. People have been exonerated through a governor’s pardon, court dismissal of the case, acquittal on retrial and a few through court-issued “certificates of innocence” or “declarations of wrongful imprisonment.” This includes cases where DNA testing was a factor. Some people have been exonerated posthumously.

The 2012 exonerations included those charged with murder, including: Damon Thibodeaux, who was cleared by DNA testing in the rape and killing of his 14-year-old step cousin and was released from death row; Michael Hash, who was was freed after 12 years following his life sentence conviction in the killing of an elderly woman. A federal judge vacated the conviction, citing misconduct by the prosecutor and police, and an inadequate defense.

The conviction integrity units, have emerged in recent years in Dallas, Houston, New York (Manhattan and Brooklyn), Santa Clara, Calif., and Lake and Cook counties in Illinois to review disputed cases. Some state attorneys general, such as in Virginia and Colorado, have also undertaken programs to facilitate exonerations or help particular defendants.

A snapshot of the 1,050 individual exonerations from January 1989-December 2012:

--  93.2 percent were men; 6.7 percent were women.

--  The race of the defendants was known in 97.6 percent of the cases: 47.3 percent were black, 38.5 percent were white, 12.2 percent were Hispanic and 1.8 percent were Native American or Asian.

--  9.4 percent pled guilty. The rest were convicted at trial: 82.2 percent by juries and 7 percent by judges. In about 1 percent of the cases, the Registry could not determine whether the trial conviction was by a jury or judge.

--  32.4 percent were cleared at least in part through DNA evidence

--  67.5 percent were cleared without DNA evidence.

--  Nearly all had been in prison for years: half for at least 9 years; more than 75 percent for at least 4 years.

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Pool via AP

Jodi Arias answers written questions from the jury during her murder trial on March 7.

The judge in Jodi Arias' high-profile murder trial on Tuesday denied defense lawyers' request for a mistrial and dismissed a juror from the case.

Arias' lawyers claimed the juror made comments to another member of the jury that brought into question her impartiality, the Associated Press reports. The move resulted in Judge Sherry Stephen's removing that juror but denying the claims of a mistrial. The move leaves five alternate jurors in addition to the 12 charged with deciding the case.

Last week lawyers for the defense argued prosecuting attorney Juan Martinez committed misconduct by signing autographs and posing for pictures outside the Phoenix, Ariz., courtroom.  

Arias, 32, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her ex-boyfriend whom she admitted killing in June 2008. The Arizona native could face the death penalty if convicted. Under state law all 12 jurors must agree on the death penalty.

A Texas district attorney was shot at 20 times and his wife, Cynthia, was shot once when they were gunned down in their home on Saturday, a federal source with knowledge of the investigation told NBC News.

The source didn't say exactly how many times the man was hit. An earlier affidavit in the case said both of the victims sustained multiple gunshot wounds. The reason for the discrepancy was unclear.

The slayings of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife have rocked the the small town of Kaufman on the eastern outskirts of Dallas.

The brazen attack on the justice official comes weeks after Colorado's prison director, Tom Clements, was shot to death at his home, with a paroled white supremacist ex-con killed in a Texas shootout the main suspect.

The deaths also came less than three months after McLelland had publicly vowed to track down the killer of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, who was shot dead midday Jan. 31 in the middle of Kaufman's town square.

In a search warrant affidavit, deputies told an investigator they saw cartridge casings inside the residence near the two bodies during a protective sweep of the home. Sheriff’s office personnel observed multiple gunshot wounds, the statement said.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram first reported on the affidavit’s contents on Tuesday; the document was also reviewed by Reuters.

The Kaufman County sheriff was expected to release an update on the case on Tuesday. A scheduled Tuesday morning news briefing was canceled, and reporters were told the next update would be done via a news release.

Law enforcement officials have been tight-lipped about the investigation into the double murder.

No connection has been revealed to the Hasse killing, in which no bullet casings were found and no suspects have been named.

County Judge Bruce Wood, however, said Monday he believes the fatal shootings of the prosecutors are related.

“This was just not some random act,” he told the Star-Telegram. “It seems to me there has to be some connection.”

Federal prosecutors told NBC News they are working on different theories on who might be responsible for the double slaying. One is the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a white supremacist jail gang. Dozens of its members were charged with crimes in a multiagency investigation that included McLelland's office. Other officials have played down that angle.

Other theories being investigated are drug cartels and a lone gunman with a grudge. Still, a federal source told NBC News there is no clear theory that stands out to explain the apparent assassinations, and no direct link with any groups has been reported.

Assistant District Attorney Brandi Fernandez on Monday was named to take over for McLelland and will hold the district attorney job for 21 days or until Gov. Rick Perry appoints a successor.

Meanwhile, hundreds of law enforcement professionals  — including the FBI and the Texas Rangers — are working on the case.

Judges and prosecutors arrived at the county courthouse under heavy protection Tuesday morning, flanked by armed guards.

“I think everyone is sad over this,” County Judge David Lewis, a friend of McLelland who attended the same church, told NBCDFW.com. When asked if there were a sense of fear, he said, "Sure. Yeah.… We’re going to keep going on, and we’re going to do the best we can.”

Though police have so far given few answers, there was optimism at the courthouse that the crime would be solved.

"I am confident they will find whoever committed this crime," Wood said.

A public memorial service for the McLellands was scheduled for Thursday at First Baptist Church of Sunnyvale in Mesquite. The couple will be buried in Mike McLelland's hometown of Wortham. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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This story was originally published on Tue Apr 2, 2013 3:05 PM EDT

M. Spencer Green/AP file

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced a 42 percent drop in murders in the first quarter of 2013.

Three months after Chicago notched the most murders in the nation, officials are touting a dramatic downturn in crime.

In the first quarter of the year, murders dropped 42 percent over the same period last year and shootings were down 27 percent -- reductions that authorities say were fueled by anti-gang initiatives.

"These numbers are progress but they are by no means victory," Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said in a statement.

The encouraging figures come after a series of crimes that made Chicago a symbol of urban gun violence.

The nation's third-largest city ended 2012 with the most slayings: 506. Then came the shooting death of innocent teenager Hadiya Pendleton, who had just performed with her school marching band during President Obama's inauguration weekend activities. She was killed during the deadliest January that Chicago had seen in a decade.

But March, in particular, brought good news for the city and its beleaguered police force: murders down 69 percent, with 36 fewer people slain than in March 2012.

There were still horrific headlines out of Chicago last month, though, such as 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins being gunned down in what police said was a gang-related shooting aimed at her father.

And on the day that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and McCarthy announced the new crime stats, they also had to answer questions about a wild weekend melee by teenagers along the city's Magnificent Mile.

McCarthy told NBCChicago.com that the advent of warmer weather was partly to blame for the disturbance because it brings young people outside.

Since Pendleton's murder, the Police Department has put more officers on the street and City Hall is beefing up after-school and summer job programs to stop youths from falling in with gangs.

McCarthy said the first-quarter numbers are "encouraging" but cautioned that there are no shortcuts to cracking down on crime.

"It's not like a Jenga game where if you pull out that one stick everything falls down," he said.

An official in the Texas county where a prosecutor and his wife were shot to death over the weekend said Monday that the ordeal was “surreal” and that authorities there were on alert.

“We’re still in shock,” Kaufman County Judge Bruce Wood told reporters.

District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were gunned down at their home outside Dallas on Saturday two months after another prosecutor there was shot to death.

A white supremacist group has been thought to be planning retaliation after indictments in a racketeering case, and the state has recently warned about Mexican drug cartels.

But authorities have not said the killings of the two prosecutors are linked and have not announced any leads in the McLellands’ deaths.

“We are very much on alert,” said Wood, whose title is the equivalent of a county administrator or commissioner. “We have some folks out there that intend to do harm to public officials.”

He said that the county was open for business.

McLelland had vowed to catch the killer of the other prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, who was gunned down near the county courthouse on his way to work Jan. 31.

McLelland told reporters that day: “I hope the people that did this are watching. Because we're very confident that we're going to find you, pull you out of whatever hole you're in, bring you back and let the people of Kaufman County prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

Gov. Rick Perry on Monday urged law enforcement officers to be careful.

“This I think is a clear concern to individuals who are in public life, particularly those who deal with some very mean and vicious individuals, whether they’re white supremacy groups or whether they're the drug cartels that we have,” he said.

Mayor Darren Rozell of Forney, which is in Kaufman County, told NBC News after McLelland’s killing that it appeared to be targeted and that civilians probably were not at risk.

Asked about suggestions that a white supremacist group may have been involved, Rozell said he had seen media reports to that effect but “really couldn’t comment.”

On the day Hasse was killed, the Justice Department announced that the Kaufman County DA’s office was among investigative bodies involved in a racketeering case against the white supremacist group Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.

The hate group was suspected of “actively planning retaliation” against police and prosecutors who helped gain indictments in Houston against dozens of its members, the Dallas Morning News reported in February.

Rep. Ted Poe, a Republican and former Texas prosecutor, told CNN that his suspicions in the McLelland killing centered on the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacy group, but he did not say where he was getting his information.

In February, the state's Department of Public Safety issued a report highlighting the threat of Mexican drug cartels operating in Texas.

The FBI and the Texas Rangers were leading the investigations, which at one point examined possible ties to the March 19 shooting death of Colorado prisons director Tom Clements, Reuters reported, adding that no connection had been found.

The McLellands were “deeply in love,” Tonya Ratcliff, the county tax assessor and a longtime friend of the couple, told NBCDFW.com.

“You would never hear one of them say an ugly word about the other one,” she said. "They were just a wonderful couple, and it was a pleasure to be around them — and I will miss them.”

A tip line has been set up for the investigation. Anyone with information to share with investigators is asked to call 1-877-847-7522.

On Monday evening, the Kaufman County Sheriff's office announced that Brandi Fernandez, First Assistant District Attorney, will fill the position of interim DA for a period of 21 days.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

District attorney, wife shot to death in Texas county where assistant DA was killed, police say

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 1, 2013 5:52 AM EDT