Ohio executes man who killed, raped 6-month-old

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) ? A man convicted of killing a 6-month-old as he raped her was executed Wednesday despite his arguments that he never meant to hurt her.

Steve Smith, 46, was executed by lethal injection for the September 1998 killing of his live-in girlfriend's daughter, Autumn Carter, in Mansfield in northern Ohio.

Smith had recently tried to get his sentence reduced to life in prison, arguing that he was too drunk to realize that his assault was killing Autumn and didn't mean to hurt the baby.

Smith's daughter and only child, 21-year-old Brittney Smith, wept loudly in the 25 minutes between when her father walked into the death chamber flanked by prison guards and when he was pronounced dead at 10:29 a.m.

Steve Smith declined to say any last words, then looked at his daughter sitting behind a pane of glass.

"I love you," she said as she wept. Smith turned his head away and appeared to be struggling not to cry, his chin wavering.

As the lethal injection began, Smith took several heavy breaths before he closed his eyes and looked as though he were falling asleep.

As Brittney and Smith's niece Melissa Aguirre sobbed, Autumn's mother, aunt and grandfather sat quietly watching, sometimes shaking their heads and rolling their eyes at the noise of the other women.

After the execution, Autumn's aunt, Kaylee Bashline, pumped her fists in the air as if in victory and gave a hug to Autumn's mother, Kesha Frye.

Bashline has said that her family has no reason to doubt that Smith is guilty, especially with his recent admission, and that it's not fair that he had 15 years since the crime to live, visit family and say his goodbyes.

"He got all that, and what did she get?" Bashline said. "She got to be killed and put in the ground where none of us gets to see her anymore. I don't find it right."

Brittney Smith has said she has never believed her father committed the crime.

"I know my dad's innocent," she said. "I do not believe he did this, and you know, he raised all my cousins, my sister before I was even born, and he never did anything (sexually)."

Back on the night of September 29, 1998, Autumn's mother was awoken by Smith, her live-in boyfriend of four months.

Smith, who was extremely drunk and naked, laid a naked and lifeless Autumn on Frye's bed, according to court records.

Frye rushed the baby and her other 2-year-old daughter to a neighbor's house and called 911. Autumn was pronounced dead after doctors tried to revive her for more than an hour, and Smith was arrested.

The baby was covered in bruises and welts, had cuts on her forehead and had severe injuries showing she had been brutally raped, though no semen was present.

At the home, there was no sign of forced entry, and police found a large amount of white cloth that came from Autumn's diaper strewn about; police found the rest of the diaper in a garbage bin outside, along with 10 empty cans of beer and a T-shirt.

At the time, Smith told police that he "didn't do anything."

"I'm not sick like that," he said.

At trial, Smith didn't testify in his own defense on the advice of his attorneys, even as prosecutors repeatedly referred to him as a "baby raper," showed pictures of Autumn's battered body and told jurors that her assault lasted up to a half-hour.

Expert witnesses for Smith testified that he might have accidentally suffocated the girl within three to five minutes of the assault.

The jury found Smith guilty of aggravated murder and sentenced him to die.

At an April 2 hearing in which Smith sought to have his death sentence reduced to life in prison, he admitted to the crime and said he didn't mean to kill Autumn.

He also told the Ohio Parole Board that he was not in his right mind the night of the crime and has to live every day with what he did. He said he was sorry and wished he could ask Autumn for forgiveness.

The board and Gov. John Kasich unanimously turned him down, with the board calling him "the worst of the worst."

"Smith took the life of an innocent 6-month-old infant while using the baby to sexually gratify himself," the board said in its decision. "It is hard to fathom a crime more repulsive or reprehensible in character."

Smith became the 51st inmate put to death in Ohio since it resumed executions in 1999. The state has enough of its lethal injection drug, the powerful sedative pentobarbital, to execute two other inmates before the supply expires. Eight more inmates are scheduled to die from November through mid-2015.

___

Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-executes-man-killed-raped-6-month-old-143517634.html

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Missing since 2002 and declared dead, woman turns up in Florida

LITITZ, Pa. (AP) ? A central Pennsylvania woman who mysteriously disappeared after dropping off her children for school 11 years ago has surfaced in Florida and has told police she traveled there on a whim with homeless hitchhikers, slept under bridges and survived by scavenging food and panhandling, authorities said Wednesday.

Brenda Heist, 53, had been declared legally dead, Lititz Borough Police Det. John Schofield said. The detective said he met with her in Florida on Monday and she expressed shame and apologized for what she did to her family.

Heist was going through an amicable divorce in 2002 when she got some bad news about future housing plans, Schofield said. She was crying in a park when some strangers befriended her, then invited her to join them as they began a monthlong hitchhiking journey to south Florida, he said.

Her ex-husband got the courts to declare her legally dead two years ago and he has remarried, Schofield said.

"She has a birth certificate and a death certificate so she's got a long ways to make this right again," Schofield said. "She's got to take it slow with her family, I'm sure, and it's going to be a long process."

Inside her home the day Heist disappeared, dinner was defrosting and the laundry was half done. Police located her car in a neighboring county but none of her personal belongings were taken.

When Schofield called to meet with her ex-husband Lee Heist and their daughter, they assumed he would be notifying them that her remains were found, the detective said.

Lee Heist struggled financially after his wife disappeared, losing his job and his house, the detective said. She had been a bookkeeper at a car dealership.

Heist turned herself in to Monroe County sheriff's deputies in Key Largo, Fla., on Friday, regarding some outstanding warrants, and then informed them she was a missing person. She had apparently been homeless for the past two years, most recently living in a tent community run by a social service agency.

"She said she was at the end of her rope, she was tired of running," said Schofield.

For about seven years she lived with a man in a camper in Key West and worked odd jobs. Schofield said she never had access to a computer and never checked to see if she was being sought, although she assumed she was.

Heist's daughter is now a West Chester University sophomore, and her son recently graduated from the same college.

Schofield said police in Florida were trying to sort out the warrants issue, but she was expected to be released soon, perhaps later on Wednesday.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office said Heist was in "protective custody," although not with the office. The sheriff's office did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request by The Associated Press for a way to contact her.

Heist has a brother in Florida and another brother and her mother live in Texas, Schofield said.

___

AP writer Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pa-woman-disappeared-2002-found-fla-160655714.html

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Ohio archbishop offers support over class shooting

CINCINNATI (AP) ? The Roman Catholic archbishop of Cincinnati expressed sadness and offered prayers Tuesday for a wounded student, his family and those in the school community in the aftermath of a classroom suicide attempt.

The student remained hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday as classes resumed at La Salle High School, an all-male Catholic school west of Cincinnati.

"We are all greatly saddened by the shooting," Archbishop Dennis Schnurr said in a statement. "We pray for the young man's recovery, not only from the self-inflicted wound but also from the personal challenges that led him to take this action."

The Cincinnati archdiocese covers 19 counties, including 114 Catholic primary and secondary schools. Schnurr said there are also prayers for family, the other students and the teacher who were in the classroom Monday morning and for the entire La Salle school community.

Green Township police said there were at least 21 other students in the first-period classroom Monday morning when the student attempted suicide with a semi-automatic handgun. They said no other students or staff were threatened.

The student is a junior and an honors student. He made the top honor roll on the most recent academic report and has been active in Boy Scouts. School spokesman Greg Tankersley said he has an extensive record of community service, and has been "highly involved" in school life.

Green Township police said they would review security at the school, but Chief Bart West said school officials reacted according to their safety plan Monday. The school was put in lockdown, and students were later dismissed to parents.

Improving school security has been a high priority around the state in the aftermath of last year's fatal shooting of three students at Chardon High School in northeast Ohio and the December shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Officials say the FBI and U.S. Secret Service have gotten involved in a bomb-threat investigation at Cuyahoga Falls in northeast Ohio, which was closed Monday as a precaution. There was a similar threat there in March.

The boy's family has requested privacy while they focus on efforts to save his life by the University of Cincinnati Medical Center doctors and staff.

___

Contact the reporter at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-archbishop-offers-support-over-class-shooting-165600988.html

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Viacom turns the corner on its ad slump

(Reuters) - Viacom Inc reported a 6 percent drop in revenue because of a weak slate of movies from its studio Paramount Pictures, but advertising revenue turned positive during the quarter.

The company said for the quarter that ended March 31, revenue was $3.14 billion, slightly lower than analysts' expectations of $3.19 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

But its cable network properties, which include MTV and Nickelodeon, were climbing out of a slump as advertising revenue rose 2 percent in the United States.

Viacom has been struggling with a decline in TV ratings, which are the currency for commercials, that has been responsible for lower advertising sales. The more people watch a program, the higher the cost of the ad.

Last quarter, Viacom said ad revenue slipped 6 percent on weakness at Nickelodeon, its network that airs programming aimed at children.

Adjusted for special items, earnings per share were 96 cents, a penny ahead of expectations.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Maureen Bavdek)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/viacom-reports-lower-revenue-profit-111849309.html

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Kate Middleton Pregnancy Fashion: All Hail the Duchess of Style!

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Video: Boston bombing suspects threaten to kill "Danny" if he talked Chinese

Same-sex couple with child "nervous" for Prop 8 ruling

Sunnie and Tori Kaufmann-Paulman share a name, a home and a daughter, Anika. And, if the Supreme Court overturns California's Proposition 8, they will get married immediately. But, as John Blackstone reports, they're nervous.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsEveningNews/~3/A8a5M5b2md0/

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Obama meets 7-year-old cancer patient, YouTube star Jack Hoffman

President Barack Obama meets Jack Hoffman, 7, of Atkinson, Neb. (Pete Souza/White House Photo)Jack Hoffman, a 7-year-old whose 69-yard touchdown at a University of Nebraska-Lincoln football game exploded on the Internet, found himself in the Oval Office Monday.

The Atkinson, Neb., star, who is battling brain cancer, met President Barack Obama and received a signed football from the president, according to the caption on a photo of their meeting released by the White House.

Jack, who has been "adopted" by the Cornhuskers, scored for the team when he stood in for the team's running back, and Hoffman supporter, Rex Burkhead. By Monday, video of the play had received 7.7 million YouTube hits.

Obama's visit with Jack wasn't on the president's public schedule and wasn't covered by the media.

The White House has increasingly used social media to sidestep the press in an effort to directly engage with voters.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-meets-7-old-cancer-patient-youtube-star-201130608.html

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