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Man stomps toddler to death
FORT WORTH, Texas -- A Texas man convicted of beating and stomping his girlfriend's baby daughter to death then burying her body has been sentenced to life in prison.
A Tarrant County jury sentenced 24-year-old Joshua Beard of Arlington on Monday. Beard was convicted of murder on Saturday in the 2014 death of 18-month-old Tylea Moore.
Prosecutors say Tylea died of blunt force trauma at the home Beard shared with the girl's mother, Alexis Botello. They say an angry Beard at one point threw the child onto a bed with such force that she bounced off and landed on the floor, where he stomped on her.
Authorities say Tylea was buried underneath a rural bridge northwest of Fort Worth.
Man accused of killing with guitar
BURLINGTON, Iowa -- A judge says an Iowa man is competent to stand trial on allegations that he used an electric guitar to beat his mother to death.
Des Moines County District Court records say the judge filed the ruling Monday on 29-year-old Garret Selters, who has been undergoing treatment at a state mental health facility in Oakdale since the killing. He initially was ruled incompetent.
Selters, of Burlington, has pleaded not guilty to murder. Prosecutors say he swung the guitar into the head of 56-year-old Linda Selters at her home on Oct. 17.
Defense lawyers say Selters will use an insanity defense at trial, which is allowed under Iowa rules.
Man hit, killed after leaving car
SUSSEX COUNTY, Va. -- Police in Virginia say a man who got out of his car in the middle of a highway because of a road rage incident was killed when a tractor-trailer ran him over.
Virginia State Police said the man stopped his car early Thursday in a northbound lane of I-95 in Sussex County, Virginia, got out and had a verbal exchange with the driver of a minivan who had been driving behind him.
An oncoming tractor-trailer was unable to stop and the truck's driver swerved to try and avoid the vehicles. The truck sideswiped the minivan and struck the man who had gotten out of his car.
Police said the 59-year-old man was killed instantly. Police did not release his name but said he was from Pennsylvania.
Severed heads found in Texas, La.
HOUSTON -- Severed heads have been discovered in the last month near lakes in Texas and Louisiana, and investigators are trying to determine if the gruesome discoveries are linked.
The Houston Chronicle reports that the two victims haven't been identified but were white women with reddish hair. Their heads were found in plastic bags and in similar surroundings at Lake Houston and near Calcasieu Lake. The lakes are about 150 miles apart.
A prison inmate doing cleanup labor found the severed in Louisiana on March 1. It was in a grassy marsh next to Highway 27 in Cameron Parish.
Volunteer cleanup crews near Lake Houston made the other macabre discovery on March 24 in Huffman.
No one has been arrested. The Cameron Parish Sheriff's Office and Houston police acknowledge similarities in the cases and are sharing information.
Police corral coyote for 2nd time
PHILADELPHIA -- A coyote taking a daylight stroll through Philadelphia was trapped under a large metal trash bin near a school Thursday and it was later euthanized.
The coyote was spotted along the city's downtown waterfront before police and animal control officers cornered and trapped it about 3 miles away in south Philadelphia.
Thursday's encounter marked the second time in a week that Philadelphia police have dealt with a coyote. On Monday, one was captured and released in a city park about 15 miles away from the school.
Officials at the Pennsylvania Game Commission think it may have been the same animal.
By The Associated Press