3 Guardsmen on Border Charged With Smuggling

Jun 12, 07:57 AM

Current Headlines: LAREDO, TEXAS | Three National Guardsmen assigned to the Texas- Mexico border are accused of running an immigrant smuggling ring after 24 immigrants were found inside a van that one of them was driving, a U.S. attorney said Monday.

The three, arrested last week , were arraigned Monday on a federal charge of conspiring to transport illegal immigrants.

Arrested were Pfc. Jose Rodrigo Torres, 26, and Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco, 25, both of Laredo, and Sgt. Clarence Hodge Jr., 36, of Fort Worth .

A Border Patrol agent found 24 illegal immigrants inside a van Torres was driving near Cotulla, Texas, about 68 miles north of the border, prosecutors said. The van was leased by the National Guard, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

South Carolina

court upholds murder conviction

COLUMBIA | The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction Monday of a teenager who claimed antidepressants led him to kill his grandparents and set their house on fire when he was 12 .

The court ruled against several arguments made by Christopher Pittman's attorneys, including the contention that he was denied a speedy trial before he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in February 2005.

Three years earlier, he shot his grandparents with a pump-action shotgun as they slept, then set fire to their home .

His attorneys argued unsuccessfully that he had been involuntarily intoxicated by the antidepressant Zoloft at the time of the shooting and didn't know right from wrong.

Florida

girl who had hiccup problem runs away

ST. PETERSBURG | The 15-year-old girl whose marathon case of hiccups brought her worldwide attention earlier this year has apparently run away from home, police said Monday.

Jennifer Mee's struggles with chronic hiccups - up to 50 times a minute for months - made her the subject of news stories.

Her mother said Jennifer was upset after a disagreement over a MySpace.com account her parents didn't know about.

Texas

fort hood soldier missing after drill

FORT HOOD | More than 500 soldiers walked Monday in scorching heat looking for any sign of a soldier lost nearly three days in the fort's training range.

Sgt. Lawrence G. Sprader, 25, told his commanders by cell phone that he was lost late Friday after he was two hours overdue in a solo training drill. H is phone's battery has since died, and searchers are worried that he has succumbed to the 90-plus-degree heat.

- The Associated Press

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