Briefly

New York: Confession may cast doubt on ‘wilding’ case

A lawyer for three men convicted of the 1989 “wilding” rape and beating of a female jogger in Central Park said Thursday he hoped to clear their names with a confession from a convicted murderer.

Attorney Michael Warren said Matias Reyes, a 31-year-old convicted killer and rapist, has told defense investigators he attacked the jogger and that prosecutors have told him his DNA matches a sample found at the scene.

Reyes is serving 33 years to life on unrelated charges. Warren said the inmate would not face charges in the 1989 attack because the statute of limitations had expired.

The victim, a 28-year-old investment banker, was near death when police found her in a puddle of mud and blood. She was in a coma for 12 days.

Police rounded up more than 30 teenagers who they suspected had been part of a park rampage. In all, five were tried and convicted.

All have served their prison sentences and been released.

New Mexico: Police officers kill teen holding BB gun

A 14-year-old boy was shot to death by police inside a church after pointing what turned out to be a BB gun at officers, authorities said.

Dominic Montoya had also threatened his mother, neighbors and church members with the gun before he was shot twice Wednesday night, Albuquerque police said.

The boy’s BB gun resembled a semiautomatic pistol, Detective Jeff Arbogast said.

“His mindset is really unclear,” Arbogast said. “We’re trying to understand why he did what he did.”

Cindy Harrison, minister of education at Taylor Ranch Baptist Church, told The Albuquerque Tribune the boy came to the church seeking help.

“He said he had been having some struggles all the way up through town and that he was possessed by demons and wanted prayer and needed help,” she said. “He looked very troubled.”

New York: Broker charged in plotting murders

An insurance broker has been charged with murder conspiracy and another man is under arrest in an alleged scheme to take out life insurance on Guyanese immigrants, then have them killed and collect the money.

Two victims have already been identified in a criminal complaint detailing the gruesome plot. Prosecutors have declined to discuss the case’s possible death toll, but an investigator who spoke on condition of anonymity said Thursday that at least 10 deaths were considered suspicious.

One suspect, former insurance broker Richard James, has been held without bail since his arrest in June. He has pleaded innocent to murder conspiracy.

The other suspect, Ronald Mallay, 57, was named in the criminal complaint and was arrested Tuesday. He was ordered held without bail until a hearing today.

Ohio: Suspected Nazi guard may lose citizenship

The Justice Department filed papers Thursday to revoke the citizenship of a man it says was a guard at a Nazi concentration camp where thousands died in gas chambers.

In the papers filed in U.S. District Court, the government alleges that Ildefonsas Bumys, an 81-year-old native of Lithuania, was a guard at the Majdanek camp in Poland from December 1942 to November 1943.

“Majdanek was an infamously brutal place where thousands of innocent civilians were murdered en masse,” said Michael Chertoff, assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division.

The move comes a day after the department said it would strip the citizenship of another man, 80-year-old Andrew Kuras, who allegedly was an armed guard at three Nazi slave labor camps in Poland.