An Alabama woman has been charged in the killing of her 8-year-old son, who was found with a knife protruding from his chest, investigators said.

Jennifer Nicole Long, 41, of Hartselle, is charged with capital murder in the death of her son, the Morgan County sheriff’s office said in a statement. Investigators said they discovered the grisly scene Thursday morning when they responded to a 911 call about a reported stabbing, the sheriff’s office said.

A man with multiple stab wounds told arriving deputies that he had been stabbed by his daughter and was concerned for the safety of his 8-year-old grandson, an investigator said in a court document. When deputies got to the home, they encountered Long coming down the stairs and found the boy in a bedroom, according to the court filing.

A judge has denied bond for a man accused of killing his grandparents, his brother and a family friend in south Alabama.

Jared Smith-Bracy, 21, is charged with four counts of capital murder in the deaths Wednesday night in Daphne. He met briefly with his two court-appointed attorneys before the Friday bond hearing, and they entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or mental defect on his behalf, WKRG-TV reported.

Baldwin County Chief Assistant District Attorney Teresa Heinz asked for no bond, and the judge granted that request. But the judge said that could change as the investigation continues, the television station reported.

Police have said Smith-Bracy fatally shot his 72-year-old grandmother, Barbara Smith; his 27-year-old brother, Jeremy Smith; and 71-year-old family friend, Sheila Glover, whose bodies were found in the backyard of his grandparents’ home. He then used a pickaxe to beat his 80-year-old grandfather, Lenard Smith, to death inside a bedroom in the house, police said, according to WPMI-TV.

Baldwin County Chief Assistant District Attorney Teresa Heinz asked for no bond, and the judge granted that request. But the judge said that could change as the investigation continues, the television station reported.

A 56-year-old woman has been charged after an 18-year-old Indiana University student repeatedly was stabbed in the head on a public bus in an attack the school says was because the victim is Asian.

The victim told investigators she was standing and waiting for the exit doors to open on a Bloomington Transit bus Wednesday afternoon when another passenger began striking her in the head, Bloomington police said in a release.

Bus surveillance footage showed no interaction between the two women prior to the attack.

A witness who also was riding the bus followed the woman’s attacker and contacted police, who later arrested Billie R. Davis of Bloomington. Davis has been charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery, according to court records.

The victim was treated at a hospital for multiple stab wounds. Her name was not released.

Court documents show Davis said the victim was targeted because of her race, according to WNDU-TV.

Citing court records, WRTV-TV reports that Davis told police she stabbed the woman multiple times in the head with a folding knife, because it “would be one less person to blow up our country.”

Records did not list an attorney representing Davis. “This week, Bloomington was sadly reminded that anti-Asian hate is real and can have painful impacts on individuals and our community,” Indiana University Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs James Wimbush said in a statement. “No one should face harassment or violence due to their background, ethnicity or heritage. Instead, the Bloomington and IU communities are stronger because of the vast diversity of identities and perspectives that make up our campus and community culture.”

Bloomington is in southern Indiana. Mayor John Hamilton called behavior like the bus attack “not acceptable” and said it will be “dealt with accordingly.”

“We know when a racially motivated incident like this resonates throughout the community, it can leave us feeling less safe,” Hamilton said in a statement Saturday. “We stand with the Asian community and all who feel threatened by this event.”

In recent years, Asian Americans have increasingly been the target of racially motivated harassment and assaults, especially after the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Former Louisiana Democratic Party leader Karen Carter Peterson, who resigned from the state Senate last year year citing depression and a gambling addiction — and later pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud — was sentenced on Wednesday to 22 months in prison.

Peterson, who served in the Louisiana Legislature for more than 22 years, admitted in August to taking more than $140,000 in funds from her reelection campaign and from the state Democratic Party. The ex-lawmaker spent a “substantial amount” of that money on casino gambling, according to court documents.

Although the felony charge of federal wire fraud carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance sentenced Peterson to significantly less, The Advocate reported.

“People trusted me and I breached that trust,” Peterson said in court, WDSU-TV reported.

At the sentencing, Peterson cried at the podium and repented for her criminal wrongdoing — apologizing to her constituents, family and friends.

Ahead of the sentencing, Peterson’s lawyers implored U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance to consider an alternative to prison — such as probation or home confinement.

They said her gambling addiction resulted in “diminished mental capacity,” which can qualify a defendant for a reduced sentence, according to court filings obtained by The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. In addition, they pointed to her Christian faith, her acceptance of responsibility for the crimes and her participation in Gamblers Anonymous.

A Colorado funeral home operator accused of illegally selling body parts and giving clients fake ashes was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday by a federal court judge.

Megan Hess received the maximum sentence after pleading guilty to mail fraud in November under a plea agreement in which other charges against her were dropped, The Daily Sentinel reported.

U.S. authorities said that on dozens of occasions, Hess and her mother, Shirley Koch, who also pleaded guilty to mail fraud, transferred bodies or body parts to third parties for research without families’ knowledge.

U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello in Grand Junction also sentenced Koch on Tuesday to 15 years in prison. Arguello sentenced the pair after victims testified about the pain they’d suffered under the scheme.

Hess, 48, and Koch, 69, operated the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in the western city of Montrose. They were arrested in 2020 and charged with six counts of mail fraud and three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials.

A grand jury indictment said that from 2010 through 2018, Hess and Koch offered to cremate bodies and provide the remains to families at a cost of $1,000 or more, but many of the cremations never occurred.

Hess created a nonprofit organization in 2009 called Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation as a body-broker service doing business as Donor Services, authorities said.

On dozens of occasions, Hess and Koch transferred bodies or body parts to third parties for research without families’ knowledge, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The transfers were done through Sunset Mesa Funeral Foundation and Donor Services and families were given ashes that were not those of their loved ones, authorities said.

Hess and Koch also shipped bodies and body parts that tested positive for, or belonged to people who died from, infectious diseases including HIV and Hepatitis B and C, despite certifying to buyers that the remains were disease-free, authorities said.

Hess’ attorney, Ashley Petrey, told the court Tuesday Hess was motivated by a desire to advance medical research.

Prosecutors plan to seek a decades-long prison sentence for a man who is expected to plead guilty this week to opening fire in a subway car and wounding 10 riders in an attack that shocked New York City.

Frank James, 63, is scheduled to enter a guilty plea on Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court, admitting that he was responsible for the April 12 attack. It set off a massive 30-hour manhunt that ended when he called the police on himself.

Prosecutors told Judge William F. Kuntz II in a letter late last week that they plan to ask him to go beyond the roughly 32-year to 39-year sentence that federal sentencing guidelines would recommend. James planned the attack for years and endangered the lives of dozens of people, prosecutors said in the letter.

Defense attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday, when courts were closed to observe the New Year’s holiday.

James had been scheduled to stand trial in late February.

His lawyers informed the judge on Dec. 21 that James wanted to plead guilty. Prosecutors say he plans to plead guilty to 11 charges without a plea agreement.

Ten of those charges — each one corresponding to a specific victim — accuse him of committing a terrorist attack against a mass transportation system carrying passengers and employees.

A woman repeatedly raped as a child is eligible for millions of dollars in additional compensation because a state cap on pain-and-suffering awards is unconstitutional as applied to cases like hers, a divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled Friday.

Because the cap was a deterrent to pursuing civil cases against attackers, the ruling could lead to more such lawsuits and help other survivors of child sex abuse, her attorney said.

At issue was a Cuyahoga County judge’s 2020 decision to cut a portion of a $20 million jury verdict to $250,000. That decision was based on a 2005 law meant to limit the size of awards in lawsuits.

The same jury also had awarded the woman $114 million — $14 million for pain-and-suffering for rapes that occurred before that law took effect, and $100 million in punitive damages.

In its 4-3 ruling reinstating the $20 million verdict, the state’s high court said the law was unconstitutional as applied to child victims of intentional crimes, such as sex abuse, who sue their convicted offenders. The court found the cap unreasonable because it didn’t include an exception for such plaintiffs who suffered permanent and severe psychological injuries.

It also noted that the question of whether the woman can actually recover any of the awarded damages from the imprisoned man was irrelevant to the issue of the law’s constitutionality.

One of the woman’s attorneys, John Fitch, said the cap had deterred people from pursuing such civil cases because they can be so expensive to litigate.

“I mean, what are you going to do with a $250,000 cap against someone like Jeffrey Epstein? ... That’s nothing,” Fitch said, referencing the notorious sex crimes case against the now-deceased financier. “You could be drowned in paper for years, with a $250,000 cap.”

More than five years ago, the state Supreme Court cited the same 2005 law, sometimes known as tort reform, when it threw out a $3.6 million jury award to a woman raped by her pastor at age 15. The court reduced the award to about $385,000 based on that law.
It also noted that the question of whether the woman can actually recover any of the awarded damages from the imprisoned man was irrelevant to the issue of the law’s constitutionality.

One of the woman’s attorneys, John Fitch, said the cap had deterred people from pursuing such civil cases because they can be so expensive to litigate.

“I mean, what are you going to do with a $250,000 cap against someone like Jeffrey Epstein? ... That’s nothing,” Fitch said, referencing the notorious sex crimes case against the now-deceased financier. “You could be drowned in paper for years, with a $250,000 cap.”

More than five years ago, the state Supreme Court cited the same 2005 law, sometimes known as tort reform, when it threw out a $3.6 million jury award to a woman raped by her pastor at age 15. The court reduced the award to about $385,000 based on that law.