Florida

Caregiver indicted on murder charges

A Miami-Dade County grand jury on Wednesday indicted the former caregiver of missing Rilya Wilson on charges of first-degree murder, more than four years after the child disappeared.

The grand jury’s indictment — the first time officials acknowledged that they have concluded Rilya was killed — charges Geralyn Graham, 59, with smothering, suffocating or beating the child to death sometime in December 2000. That was more than a year before an adoption worker visited Graham’s house to inquire about the girl.

In announcing the indictment on Wednesday, prosecutors dropped a bombshell of an allegation — that Graham made “certain admissions” about the murder to a jail inmate. The jailhouse admission, coupled with evidence uncovered during the long investigation and statements made by others, led to the first-degree murder charge, said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle.

Prosecutors would not reveal any further details about Graham’s alleged admission.

Houston

Episcopal leaders put ban on new bishops

Episcopal bishops have imposed a one-year ban on approving new bishops, saying “extraordinary action” was needed to ease the crisis in world Anglicanism after the Diocese of New Hampshire elected an openly gay priest as its leader.

During a six-day retreat outside Houston, the bishops also promised not to authorize “public rites” for blessing same-sex couples for at least a year, although the wording of the pledge left open the possibility that individual clergy could hold such ceremonies in private.

Episcopal leaders are striving to repair badly frayed ties with Anglican leaders over the November 2003 consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who lives with his longtime male partner. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. province of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion.

Most Anglican archbishops believe the Bible bans gay sex. In meetings last fall and last month, these leaders — called primates — requested that Episcopal bishops impose temporary bans on same-sex blessings and the ordination of unmarried bishops who are not celibate.

Florida

Sex offender sought in girl’s disappearance

Detectives Wednesday identified a “person of interest” they want to interview in last month’s disappearance of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford as a registered sex offender who left the area without telling authorities.

John Evander Couey, 46, lived about two miles north of the child’s Homosassa home but sometimes stayed with relatives who live within “eyeshot” of her house, Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said. He was interviewed by authorities in Savannah, Ga., but has since been released.

Detectives became interested in Couey while attempting to contact every registered sex offender who lived near Jessica’s house. They discovered he no longer lived at his address and hadn’t told authorities about a move.

The identification of a “person of interest” marked the first time investigators have provided public details of any progress in the case since Jessica disappeared from her bedroom Feb. 23.

Colorado

Army captain convicted of assaults on Iraqis

An Army captain accused of terrorizing an Iraqi town under his supervision was convicted Wednesday at Fort Carson of assaulting Iraqis, but acquitted of charges stemming from an alleged assault of one of his own soldiers.

Shawn L. Martin was convicted of two assault counts and an aggravated assault count. A jury of seven officers found Martin innocent of other counts of assault, aggravated assault, obstruction of justice and conduct unbecoming of an officer.

Martin had faced up to 44 1/2 years in prison and loss of his military pension if convicted of all charges. He could receive six months in prison for each assault conviction, and eight years for the aggravated assault count.

He was convicted for an assault that happened at a police station; another on a firefighter who responded when a Humvee was damaged by a land mine; and an aggravated assault case involving a welder taken out to the desert and told to provide information on weapons caches — or start digging his own grave.

The same jury will decide Martin’s sentence when it reconvenes today.