New York

Mother sentenced for drowning 4-year-old

A mother diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic was sentenced to the maximum 50 years to life in prison Wednesday for drowning her 4-year-old son in a bathtub last year and attempting to kill her other son.

Christine Wilhelm, 39, Troy, was convicted of murder last month in the drowning death of young Luke. She was also found guilty of attempted murder for trying to drown Peter, then 5, who escaped her grasp.

“It was not a merciful killing,” the boys’ father, Kenneth Wilhelm, said as he cried in court Wednesday. “It was more a form of brutal torture.”

As Christine Wilhelm was led from the courtroom after the sentencing, she shouted: “You’re all liars.”

Georgia

Six-year-old mauled by uncle’s pit bulls

A 6-year-old boy was mauled to death by two pit bulls owned by his uncle.

Coroner Lloyd Hunter speculated the dogs attacked Isaiah Alley, of Clayton, on Sunday because they smelled meat Isaiah had fed to his own puppy or because the dogs tried to attack the puppy first and the boy intervened.

The dogs charged the boy’s mother when she tried to help him, Hunter said. She got into a vehicle to escape, then called 911.

Oklahoma City

Bombing conspirator seeks out-of-state trial

Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols has asked a judge to move his state trial out of Oklahoma or delay it because of “extremely prejudicial publicity.”

Prosecutors argued Tuesday that the trial, scheduled to begin March 1, should be held in Oklahoma County with jurors picked from a nearby county to spare witnesses undue travel expenses and other hardships.

District Judge Steven Taylor said he would rule next week.

Nichols, 48, was convicted in a federal trial of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of eight federal agents and is serving a life sentence.

The state case focuses on the 160 others who died as a result of the 1995 attack.

Arizona

Murder trial tied to 9-11 begins

A man accused of fatally shooting an Indian immigrant four days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was acting out of a rage fueled by prejudice, a prosecutor said in opening statements of the man’s trial. The man’s attorney argued mental illness was to blame.

On the day of the terrorist attacks, Frank Silva Roque was overheard saying he would shoot people whom he described with an ethnic slur, prosecutor Vince Imbordino said as the murder trial opened Tuesday.

“This is a clash of two cultures and, in part, a result of Sept. 11,” Imbordino said. “But the murder of Mr. Sodhi ran much deeper than that.”

Roque is accused of killing gasoline station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi, a 49-year-old who wore a beard and turban as part of his Sikh faith.

New York City

Port Authority stops 9-11 protesters

Loved ones of Sept. 11 victims who hoped to shut down ground zero Tuesday were stymied by the Port Authority, which chained the entrance and rerouted trucks before the protesters showed up.

No entrance to block meant no civil disobedience. And no civil disobedience meant the victims’ families would not be arrested — as they had hoped.

“Only in New York could someone want to get arrested and not be able to get arrested,” said Norman Siegel, an attorney representing the group.

The families want about 9 acres of the 16-acre site reserved for a tribute for those killed in World Trade Center attacks.