Houston

Police seek father for shooting of infant

Police have filed capital murder charges against the father of an 8-month-old girl who was fatally shot in the chest as her mother tried to protect her.

Eladio Camacho Navarro, 38, had threatened the baby’s mother with a .38-caliber revolver during a Christmas morning argument, police spokesman Martin DeLeon said. The woman’s name was not released.

DeLeon said the baby, Nayeli Navarro, was shot as her mother turned to protect the baby and herself from her common-law husband, who fled afterward.

Authorities continued searching Thursday for Navarro, who they believe may be trying to reach Mexico. His sport-utility vehicle was found abandoned in a supermarket parking lot less than 10 miles from the home where the shooting took place.

Virginia

Delta Airlines pilot fails breathalyzer test

A Delta Airlines pilot failed a breathalyzer test for alcohol after he was taken off an airplane Thursday at Norfolk International Airport, airport officials said.

Gary Schroeder, 42, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.07, according to Ken Scott of the Norfolk Airport Authority. The Federal Aviation Administration’s limit for a flight crew member is 0.04.

Scott said baggage screeners notified airport police after detecting alcohol on Schroeder’s breath when he arrived to co-pilot the Cincinnati-bound flight.

Scott said Schroeder was cooperative and agreed to board a flight to Delta headquarters in Atlanta.

FAA regulations prohibit pilots from drinking alcohol within eight hours of duty. Violations can lead to license revocation.

Michigan

Two charged in slayings of five family members

Two men were charged Thursday with murdering five family members, including three children, during a robbery at a home in suburban Detroit.

John Wolfenbarger, 31, and Dennis Lincoln, 27, were charged with five counts each of premeditated murder and felony murder.

Jeweler Marco Pesce, 38; his mother, Maria Vergati, 68; and Pesce’s three children, Melissa, 6, Sabrina, 9, and Carlo, 12, were gunned down execution-style Saturday in Pesce’s Livonia home. Police said the house was ransacked.

The men were believed to have been cellmates in a prison in Carson City and were paroled earlier this year, prosecutors said.

Lincoln served nine years in prison for armed robbery, and Wolfenbarger served eight years for a series of burglaries.

Louisiana

Imprisoned official’s wife kidnapped

The wife of a former state elections commissioner was abducted on her way to visit her husband in prison, authorities said Thursday.

Mari Ann Fowler, 65, disappeared on Christmas Eve outside a Port Allen sandwich shop, investigators said.

Fowler was going to the prison for a Christmas visit with her husband, former elections commissioner Jerry Fowler, who is serving a five-year term after pleading guilty in 2000 to taking kickbacks from voting machine contractors.

Investigators found Mary Ann Fowler’s purse, keys and sandwiches beside the car. Police also found tire tracks in the parking lot they believe could belong to her abductor.

West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Mike Cazes said the kidnapper apparently was waiting for Fowler when she left the shop. Cazes said there was no indication Fowler’s abduction was related to her husband’s legal troubles or debts.

Fowler owes $1.68 million to banks, credit cards, the state and the Internal Revenue Service, according to his October 2001 bankruptcy filing.