Gosnell Found Guilty of First Degree Murder in ‘House of Horrors’ Abortion, Murder Trial

Editor's Note: This story contains graphic descriptions.

The court case that has both horrified and gripped the nation is coming to a close. A verdict in the Dr. Kermit Gosnell trial has been reached: The abortion doctor is guilty in three of four first-degree murder counts (these were three of the more than 250 criminal charges against him). The penalty phase of the case is expected to begin on May 21, as Gosnell may receive the death penalty for his crimes.

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The emotion surrounding the case has been intense, as abortion continues to be a monumentally-contentious issue in America, specifically terminations past the 20-week mark. Throughout the six-week trial, defense attorney Jack McMahon attempted to paint the abortion doctor as a victim of racism and elitism who is being targeted by the judicial system.

Conversely, the prosecution, led by Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron, dubbed him a heartless killer who murdered babies outside the womb. For the most part, the jury agreed with the second descriptive.

The charges against Gosnell included 258 counts in total. As stated, the three first-degree murder counts could yield the death penalty. In addition to these and an additional third-degree murder charge, the abortion doctor faces 24 counts of conducting third-trimester abortions (an illegal act) and 227 counts of failing to counsel patients a day before doing the procedure. According to the Associated Press, "Gosnell was also convicted of infanticide, racketeering and more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania's abortion laws by performing third-term abortions or failing to counsel women 24 hours in advance."

Lila Rose, the Founder of Live Action, a pro-life group that has been releasing undercover videos in an effort to expose other abortion providers, is naturally reacting favorably to the Gosnell verdict. In a release, she decried the "gruesome and inhuman" conditions at the clinic and said that "justice has been served."

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Dr. Kermit Gosnell (Photo Credit: AP)

"Even as we celebrate this verdict, we honor and mourn as well those innocents who did not receive 'their day in court' - and we must remember that Gosnell is not an outlier within the abortion industry," she said. "We cannot allow these 'guilty' verdicts, welcome as they are, to make us complacent when it comes to the continuing abuses happening even now in abortion facilities throughout our nation."

Even Planned Parenthood welcomed the verdict. Spokesperson Eric Ferrero called Gosnell a butcher and, as USA Today notes, said the doctor's punishment is warranted.

"This was horrifying and he should be punished," he said. "This was not an abortion provider. This was someone preying on women."

Perhaps the battle -- one that has created new-found interest in discussion and debate surrounding late-term abortion -- can best be summarized by looking back at the arguments that were advanced by both McMahon and Cameron. On April 29, TheBlaze was in the courtroom to hear closing arguments; both sides pointedly defended their viewpoints, providing a look-back at key testimony in the troubling case.

THE DEFENSE'S CLOSING ARGUMENTS

McMahon offered a fiery diatribe, defending his client against the first degree murder charges for four infants allegedly killed after birth and a third-degree charge for the death of Karnamaya Mongar, an immigrant who died following an abortion. While admitting that the clinic, the Women's Medical Society, wasn't perfect, the lawyer launched into a major defensive, railing against the notion that it was a bloody "house of horrors," as prosecutors, pro-life advocates and the media have maintained.

He defended Gosnell as an asset to the community who provided low-cost health care and an opportunity for young females in the neighborhood to learn. Rather than rooting its arguments in fairness, the attorney accused the prosecution of prejudice; he called the case against Gosnell "elitist" and "racist" and said that the charges and claims have been blown out of proportion.

"This isn't a perfect place by any stretch of the imagination -- but it's not what they say it is," McMahon continued, going on to claim that Gosnell was singled-out because he is an African American.

Of particular frustration to McMahon was the use of the aforementioned term -- "house of horrors." While he noted that it "sounds good" and "makes for good press," he rejected the label and said that it has been manufactured to convince people to come alongside the prosecution's concocted vision of what unfolded.

From showing images of a clinic that was clean and well-organized (to contradict the prosecution's claims that the Women's Medical Society was a dirty and disease-ridden establishment) to continuously berating the prosecution over its tactics and purportedly untrue statements, McMahon was candid.

"That, ladies and gentleman, is not a house of horrors," he said, after showing the jury images of a clean and organized clinic environment.

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Dr. Kermit Gosnell's defense attorney Jack McMahon walks to the Criminal Justice Center, Monday, March 18, 2013, in Philadelphia. Gosnell, an abortion doctor who catered to minorities, immigrants and poor women at the Women's Medical Society, goes on trial Monday on eight counts of murder. Credit: AP

After tackling the conditions within, McMahon moved on to denying that any babies were killed after birth. In making this case, he relied upon the testimony of witnesses that the prosecution called. Considering that the defense attorney didn't call any witness of his own to the stand, he moved line-by-line through transcripts in an effort to both discredit statements and to poke holes in any indication that Gosnell might have delivered live babies and murdered them once they were outside of the mothers' womb.

Kareema Cross, a former clinic worker who delivered some of the more disturbing testimony about what purportedly unfolded at the hands of Gosnell, was dismissed by McMahon as having a grudge against the doctor (read details about her testimony here). Other clinic workers, he alleged, were seemingly intimidated by the government into admitting crimes that they truly did not commit.

And all of the neck-snipping, McMahon maintained, was done after the babies were dead. While this theory was advanced, there wasn't much credence given to critics' notion that spinal cords would not need to be severed if the babies were truly delivered deceased, as is the claim.

Interestingly, McMahon did leave the door open to the idea that Gosnell may have conducted abortions past the 24-week cap that is currently embedded in Pennsylvania law. He wasn't explicit and he didn't devote much time to tackling the subject.

In sum, the defense delivered compelling arguments, but not compelling enough to relieve Gosnell of the murder charges against him. The attorney did find many areas of exploitation and holes in the narrative against Gosnell -- vacancies he was able to fill with questions, curiosities and his own counter-theories.

THE PROSECUTION'S CLOSING ARGUMENTS

The prosecution delivered an equally compelling case, going through, one-by-one, all 54 witness testimonies to paint Gosnell as disorganized and murderous. Going into gruesome detail, the prosecution outlined the notion that the doctor slit babies' spinal cords and essentially forced women to go through delivery, later terminating the children after birth.

Cameron wasted little time in responding to many of McMahon's counterpoints, painting Gosnell out to be a doctor who kept poor records, who used untrained staff and, through witness testimony, a medical professional who put his patients at risk.

The assistant district attorney also appealed to the jury, noting that this case has been a turning point -- one in which people will likely think twice before merely trusting their doctors' qualifications and policies. Seeing as many of Gosnell's patients were unaware of what was allegedly going on, Cameron attempted to use the case as a call for the jury to be more aware of whom they trust with their medical care (especially considering the charges against Eileen O'Neill, a clinic staffer who is also on trial for allegedly pretending to be a doctor).

"This case is not about abortion, he stressed, noting that the procedure is legal so long as it is conducted before 24 weeks and in a safe location.

"This case is not about racism or elitism. It's not about a rush to judgment...it was conducted, held before a grand jury," Cameron continued, replying directly to the charges that McMahon had waged against the prosecution during his closing arguments.

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Dr. Kermit Gosnell (Photo Credit: AP)

Cameron's diatribe followed a similar layout. He noted the importance of having basic standards for clinics, regardless of whether they are in urban, suburban or rural areas. Citing Steven Massof's testimony (another unlicensed doctor who worked in the clinic), he noted that the office was purportedly flea ridden and dirty.

The district attorney added that the women who saw Gosnell trusted him and that, by the prosecution's assessment, the doctor failed to live up to the Hippocratic Oath - and to his responsibility to patients. Then, he proceeded to go through the testimony of all 54 individuals, using their words to highlight the prosecution's belief that Gosnell killed babies after birth and that his clinic was, indeed, a "house of horrors."

In addition to allegedly killing the four babies after birth, Cameron accused Gosnell of hitting patients during procedures. Of Baby A, who he said would have had a 70 to 80 percent chance of survival (the prosecution estimates that he was killed at 29.5 weeks), he said that, "It had scissors jabbed into its neck and it slowly suffocated to death" (Baby A's full story can be found here).

Cameron also argued that, at the least, it was Gosnell's responsibility to keep the babies comfortable. He said, "Whether that baby's going to live or not, you've got to make them comfortable," claiming that, in the cases of these children, that simply didn't happen.

Previously, Massof had said that "it would rain fetuses" at the clinic and that neck snipping was done to ensure that babies would die. If Massof's claims are correct, then Cameron's case is compelling.

For the jury and those in the packed courtroom, many of the gruesome details that were heard earlier in the case were recounted, including the notion that fetal remains were put through the clinic's garbage disposal. Also, the assistant district attorney claimed that, according to testimony, Gosnell would eat cereal and talk on his bluetooth while performing abortions -- bizarre allegations, to say the least.

The prosecution also mentioned Ashley Baldwin, a 15-year-old girl who apparently started working at the clinic after she completed the eighth grade. Now 22, Baldwin recounted helping in the abortion process -- something clearly not appropriate for a young teen at the time. Baldwin also said during testimony that she saw babies breathe and move -- obvious signs of life. A number of employees also heard noises coming from babies after birth.

"A baby making a noise has to have air, has to be alive," said Cameron.

Later, while closing, Cameron turned to Gosnell, pointed and asked, "Are you human?" For those angry over the charges against the doctor, this statement will certainly resonate. But for those who agree with McMahon and believe that this entire scenario has been a witch-hunt, Cameron's accusatory words will surely be met with disdain.

GOSNELL'S VICTIMS

Throughout the case, TheBlaze brought you information about the alleged victims at the clinic. As of today's verdict, five murder charges remained against Gosnell. Previously, Judge Jeffery P. Minehart dismissed three counts of first degree murder on the grounds that there was not enough proof that those three babies were born alive.

Thus, the original eight murder charges were decreased to five (four counts for babies and one for an adult woman who died after having an abortion at the clinic). Considering that the infants did not have names and were intended to be dead upon arrival, the court gave each child a letter (i.e. Baby A, Baby B, Baby C, etc.) to differentiate each circumstance. Now, let's explore information about the alleged victims:

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Baby A: According to Operation Rescue and LifeSiteNews.com, Baby A was delivered to Shaquana Abrama at 29.4 weeks gestation (this is based on an ultrasound record). Kareema Cross, one of the clinic workers, testified that the baby was the largest she had ever seen delivered at Women's Medical Society. He apparently was so large that he didn't fit into a plastic shoe box that Gosnell placed him in.

And according to Cross, the baby moved his arms and legs (signs of life), but his neck was allegedly cut, regardless. Cross was so shocked by the baby's size that she, along with other clinic workers, took photos on a cell phone.

As TheBlaze and the AP highlighted, the mother of Baby A testified in Gosnell's trial as well:

The mother of "Baby A" testified Tuesday afternoon, describing a painful three-day abortion process that started at Gosnell's clinic in Delaware. She was 17, had an infant daughter and was told by Gosnell she was 24 weeks pregnant -- the legal limit in Pennsylvania, but not in neighboring Delaware, where abortions are banned after 20 weeks.

The Chester woman said she was given abortion drugs in Delaware and sent home the first two days, then was directed to the West Philadelphia clinic the third day. She was in severe pain by then, pain that only worsened the following week, she said.

Her aunt had taken her to the clinic and paid the $1,300 fee, and they had not told her mother.

"I never felt pain like that, ever," the woman said. "I couldn't talk to anybody and tell anybody."

But the teen ended up being hospitalized for two weeks with a large abscess and a blood clot near her heart. Prosecutors say she is one of countless patients injured during botched abortions or unsanitary conditions.

And that's just one of the many alleged stories.

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Baby C: Cross also testified that she saw another baby breathing for 20 minutes before it, too, was purportedly killed. Baby C apparently also responded when a clinic worker lifted its arm. But later, the clinic worker testified to seeing fellow employee Lynda Williams use scissors to snip the infant's spinal cord. Even more shocking, Gosnell was allegedly in the room when this all unfolded.

In sum, Cross testified that she saw at least 10 babies breathe before they were murdered. She has already plead guilty to administering drugs at the clinic and is hoping for probation after cooperating with prosecutors. "I thought they were breathing. He would say they're not really breathing," Cross testified, according to the Associated Press.

She apparently worked at the clinic from 2005 until 2009, but was so disturbed by its practices that she took pictures and called authorities and gave a relative's name instead of her own. In addition to her claims that babies were breathing, she also purportedly saw three move, including one that was born in a toilet, the AP reports. A fourth purportedly let out a "soft whine."

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Baby D: This baby was delivered into a toilet and, according to Cross, the child immediately began struggling and "swimming" once outside of the womb. Another clinic worker, Adrienne Moton, apparently snipped the baby's neck while the infant's mother purportedly watched this all unfold. According to LifeSiteNews.com, the baby was estimated to be 12-15 inches long (based on testimony).

As previously reported, in March, Moton provided sickening details about her alleged actions at the clinic, claiming that she snipped the spines of at least 10 babies; she said that another worker -- and Gosnell himself -- did the same. Moton plead guilty and has been in prison since 2011.

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While not necessarily a victim in the court's eyes (Gosnell was found not guilty of murder), Baby E was one of the infants included in the first-degree murder charges. This baby was estimated to have fallen within the legal time frame and was said to be in utero for about 23 weeks before an abortion took place (abortions are legal up to 24 weeks in Pennsylvania).

According to LifeSiteNews.com, Ashley Baldwin, a teenager who was working at the clinic, heard the baby cry after birth, so she called Cross for help. Cross apparently confirmed this story in testimony and said that it sounded like a "whine." Gosnell then allegedly snipped the baby's neck.

TheBlaze highlighted Baldwin's story earlier this year, noting that she started at the clinic at the age of 15 (she's currently 22). According to her testimony, she saw a number of babies move, squirm -- and one even "screech" -- after birth.

As we previously noted, former employee, Sherry West, shared yet another horrifying story about after-birth noises. She claims that she was once called to the back room at the clinic, where aborted babies' bodies were apparently kept on a shelf. Once there, West heard a live baby among the bodies cry out. The screaming child "really freaked" her out, she told the court.

"I can't describe it. It sounded like a little alien," she said, noting that she previously referred to the babies as "specimens," because it was easier to mentally handle what was going on at the clinic.

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Karnamaya Mongar: Karnamaya Mongar, an immigrant from Bhutan in South Asia, is the sole adult victim in the Gosnell trial. The 41-year-old woman survived a refugee camp for two decades before coming to America, but her fate was inevitably met after a visit to the embattled doctor's clinic. In 2009, she died after undergoing an abortion at the Women's Medical Society.

Relatives are claiming wrong-doing and, in addition to the criminal trial, a lawsuit is also pending against Gosnell. The Associated Press reports that the woman's daughter, Yashoda Gurung, 24, recently testified through a translator, recapping the events that unfolded on the evening and day after her mother underwent the procedure.

In addition to labor inducing drugs, Mongar was purportedly given painkillers, as she waited for Gosnell to arrive. The prosecution charges that unlicensed staff gave Mongar a lethal combination of oral and intravenous drugs. And the Inquirer reports that too much Demerol is purportedly what led to the woman's death (read more about her story here).

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Now that the case has come to a close, Gosnell's fate will soon be decided. For TheBlaze's full Gosnell coverage, click here.

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Doctor found guilty of murder in Philadelphia abortion trial

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Philadelphia doctor was found guilty on Monday of murdering three babies during abortions at a clinic serving low-income women in a case that cast a national spotlight on the controversial practice of late-term abortions.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-shuttered Women's Medical Society Clinic, faces the possibility of the death penalty. The case focused on whether the infants were born alive and then killed.

He was accused of delivering live babies during late-term abortions and then deliberately severing their spinal cords.

Gosnell, wearing a maroon shirt and red tie, was stoic as the foreman read the verdicts. One woman on the jury cried.

After the jury was dismissed, prosecutor Joanne Pescatore threw her arms around a police officer who was a crime scene investigator at the clinic and sobbed.

The trial, which anti-abortion advocates had complained was being ignored by the media because of a bias in favor of abortion rights, was punctuated by graphic testimony.

Witness testimony described the babies as born breathing, moving and making sounds. Testimony also depicted a filthy clinic, and prosecutors called it a "house of horrors."

The jury heard five weeks of testimony in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia and deliberated for 10 days.

Gosnell also was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the case of Karnamaya Mongar, 41, of Virginia, who died from a drug overdose after going to him for an abortion.

He also was found guilty of performing 21 abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy at his clinic, which served mostly low-income women in a largely black community. It is legal in Pennsylvania to abort a fetus up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

The verdicts come as late-term abortion has become a hot-button issue in a number of statehouses this year.

Nine states ban abortions after 20 weeks, according to the pro-choice organization NARAL. Other states recently put new restrictions on abortions, with Arkansas banning them at 12 weeks and North Dakota at six weeks.

Most abortions, 92 percent, are performed before 14 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 1.3 percent are performed beyond 20 weeks.

In his instructions to the jury, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Minehart said state law defines a live baby as one that is fully expelled from the mother and showing signs of life such as breathing, heart beat or movement.

If a baby shows those signs, he told the jury: "That baby is a human being."

Gosnell also was convicted of infanticide and conspiracy in the babies' deaths.

In addition, he was found guilty of 211 counts of failing to comply with a state law that requires a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion is performed. Each of those 211 counts carries the possibility of up to one year in prison.

Afterward, Gosnell was taken from the courthouse manacled and clad in a green prison uniform. He has been in jail since his arrest in January 2011.

"He is disappointed, and he is upset," defense attorney Jack McMahon said.

Jury members were whisked away in a van following the trial. The same seven-woman, five-man panel will return to court on Tuesday to decide if Gosnell will face the death penalty or life in prison on the three counts of first-degree murder on which he was convicted.

The jury cleared Gosnell of one charge of first-degree murder related to one of the babies he was accused of killing.

Being convicted of three counts of first-degree murder is considered an aggravating circumstance, which prosecutors could argue merits the death penalty, said William Brennan, a high-profile defense attorney in Philadelphia.

Mitigating circumstances that the defense could cite as a reason to spare Gosnell include his age of 72 and the fact that he has no previous criminal record, Brennan said.

McMahon said he was considering putting Gosnell on the witness stand during the penalty phase.

The jury earlier in the day said it was deadlocked on two counts, without specifying which ones, but the judge ordered them to resume deliberations.

Gosnell's defense had claimed there was no evidence the babies were alive after they were aborted and that any noise or movement would have been involuntary spasms.

A clinic worker testified that Gosnell had cut the spinal cords of babies born breathing, including one she said the doctor had described as "big enough to walk me to the bus stop."

Anti-abortion advocates hailed the verdict as evidence that laws restricting abortions must be strengthened.

"The guilty verdict on charges of killing babies following abortion shows that the law recognizes a point at which the 'right to choose' must yield to the right to life, and also shows that abortionists don't know where that point is," said Frank Pavone, the director of Priests for Life, a group that opposes abortion.

Abortion rights groups said Gosnell was an aberration and the case underscored the need for women to have access to safe and legal abortions.

"The jury has punished Kermit Gosnell for his appalling crimes," said Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

"We must reject misguided laws that would limit women's options and force them to seek treatment from criminals like Kermit Gosnell," he said.

Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and are in jail awaiting sentencing. They include Gosnell's wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist who helped perform abortions.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Kelley, Barbara Goldberg and Atossa Araxia Abrahamian; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Sofina Mirza-Reid, John Wallace, Phil Berlowitz, Richard Chang and Andrew Hay)

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Mexican journalists' sons killed; seven bodies found near Mexico City

By Gabriel Stargardter

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Gunmen executed two sons of two prominent Mexican journalists in the northern city of Chihuahua, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office said on Sunday, and police found seven bodies dumped in a Mexico City suburb.

Alfredo Paramo, 20, and Diego Paramo, 21, were shot dead in Chihuahua early on Saturday after being chased through the streets by gunmen in a car, said spokesman Carlos Gonzalez.

They are the sons of well-known Mexican financial journalist David Paramo, who hosts a radio show, appears on TV Azteca and has a national newspaper column, and Martha Gonzalez, the editor of the local El Peso newspaper.

"We still don't know what they were doing there," Carlos Gonzalez said. "But this has nothing to do with the professional activities of their parents."

Mexican journalists are often targeted and killed by drug cartels for reporting on their activities. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based advocacy group, says 25 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 1992.

In a separate incident, authorities found seven bodies dumped in a car in a Mexico City suburb on Sunday morning, a local police official said.

Two of the men were found naked. Police have identified three of the men, who ranged in ages from 14 to 42, the official said.

It appeared all seven men, who were found in the suburb of Ecatepec, had been shot, the official said.

Last year, police discovered eight corpses dumped in the down-at-the-heels suburb of 2 million people.

Ecatepec lies in the State of Mexico, which borders the capital to the north and where more than half the population of greater Mexico City lives.

Until 2011, Enrique Pena Nieto, now the president of Mexico, was the governor of the State of Mexico.

He has vowed to take a different tack than his presidential predecessor, Felipe Calderon, who sent in the troops to tackle the warring drug cartels. Pena Nieto has focused instead on stopping kidnapping and extortion.

Roughly 70,000 people have died in drug-related killings since 2006, when Calderon launched his military-led campaign. More than 4,200 have died in the first four months of Pena Nieto's term, a slower pace than early 2012.

(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Eric Beech)

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Mother of bomb suspects found deeper spirituality

BOSTON (AP) — In photos of her as a younger woman, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva wears a low-cut blouse and has her hair teased like a 1980s rock star. After she arrived in the U.S. from Russia in 2002, she went to beauty school and did facials at a suburban day spa.

But in recent years, people noticed a change. She began wearing a hijab and cited conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a plot against Muslims.

Now known as the angry and grieving mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Tsarnaeva is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son. In another, she was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, U.S. officials said.

Tsarnaeva insists there is no mystery. She's no terrorist, just someone who found a deeper spirituality. She insists her sons — Tamerlan, who was killed in a gunfight with police, and Dzhokhar, who was wounded and captured — are innocent.

"It's all lies and hypocrisy," she told The Associated Press in Dagestan. "I'm sick and tired of all this nonsense that they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular person, and I've never been mixed up in any criminal intentions, especially any linked to terrorism."

Amid the scrutiny, Tsarnaeva and her ex-husband, Anzor Tsarnaev, say they have put off the idea of any trip to the U.S. to reclaim their elder son's body or try to visit Dzhokhar in jail. Tsarnaev told the AP on Sunday he was too ill to travel to the U.S. Tsarnaeva faces a 2012 shoplifting charge in a Boston suburb, though it was unclear whether that was a deterrent.

At a news conference in Dagestan with Anzor last week, Tsarnaeva appeared overwhelmed with grief one moment, defiant the next. "They already are talking about that we are terrorists, I am terrorist," she said. "They already want me, him and all of us to look (like) terrorists."

Tsarnaeva arrived in the U.S. in 2002, settling in a working-class section of Cambridge, Mass. With four children, Anzor and Zubeidat qualified for food stamps and were on and off public assistance benefits for years. The large family squeezed itself into a third-floor apartment.

Zubeidat took classes at the Catherine Hinds Institute of Esthetics, before becoming a state-licensed aesthetician. Anzor, who had studied law, fixed cars.

By some accounts, the family was tolerant.

Bethany Smith, a New Yorker who befriended Zubeidat's two daughters, said in an interview with Newsday that when she stayed with the family for a month in 2008 while she looked at colleges, she was welcomed even though she was Christian and had tattoos.

"I had nothing but love over there. They accepted me for who I was," Smith told the newspaper. "Their mother, Zubeidat, she considered me to be a part of the family. She called me her third daughter."

Zubeidat said she and Tamerlan began to turn more deeply into their Muslim faith about five years ago after being influenced by a family friend, named "Misha." The man, whose full name she didn't reveal, impressed her with a religious devotion that was far greater than her own, even though he was an ethnic Armenian who converted to Islam.

"I wasn't praying until he prayed in our house, so I just got really ashamed that I am not praying, being a Muslim, being born Muslim. I am not praying. Misha, who converted, was praying," she said.

By then, she had left her job at the day spa and was giving facials in her apartment. One client, Alyssa Kilzer, noticed the change when Tsarnaeva put on a head scarf before leaving the apartment.

"She had never worn a hijab while working at the spa previously, or inside the house, and I was really surprised," Kilzer wrote in a post on her blog. "She started to refuse to see boys that had gone through puberty, as she had consulted a religious figure and he had told her it was sacrilegious. She was often fasting."

Kilzer wrote that Tsarnaeva was a loving and supportive mother, and she felt sympathy for her plight after the April 15 bombings. But she stopped visiting the family's home for spa treatments in late 2011 or early 2012 when, during one session, she "started quoting a conspiracy theory, telling me that she thought 9/11 was purposefully created by the American government to make America hate Muslims."

"It's real," Tsarnaeva said, according to Kilzer. "My son knows all about it. You can read on the Internet."

In the spring of 2010, Zubeidat's eldest son got married in a ceremony at a Boston mosque that no one in the family had previously attended. Tamerlan and his wife, Katherine Russell, a Rhode Island native and convert from Christianity, now have a child who is about 3 years old.

Zubeidat married into a Chechen family but was an outsider. She is an Avar, from one of the dozens of ethnic groups in Dagestan. Her native village is now a hotbed of an ultraconservative strain of Islam known as Salafism or Wahabbism.

It is unclear whether religious differences fueled tension in their family. Anzor and Zubeidat divorced in 2011.

About the same time, there was a brief FBI investigation into Tamerlan Tsarnaev, prompted by a tip from Russia's security service.

The vague warning from the Russians was that Tamerlan, an amateur boxer in the U.S., was a follower of radical Islam who had changed drastically since 2010. That led the FBI to interview Tamerlan at the family's home in Cambridge. Officials ultimately placed his name, and his mother's name, on various watch lists, but the inquiry was closed in late spring of 2011.

After the bombings, Russian authorities told U.S. investigators they had secretly recorded a phone conversation in which Zubeidat had vaguely discussed jihad with Tamerlan. The Russians also recorded Zubeidat talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation with reporters.

The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, they might have been enough evidence for the FBI to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.

Anzor's brother, Ruslan Tsarni, told the AP from his home in Maryland that he believed his former sister-in-law had a "big-time influence" on her older son's growing embrace of his Muslim faith and decision to quit boxing and school.

While Tamerlan was living in Russia for six months in 2012, Zubeidat, who had remained in the U.S., was arrested at a shopping mall in the suburb of Natick, Mass., and accused of trying to shoplift $1,624 worth of women's clothing from a department store.

She failed to appear in court to answer the charges that fall, and instead left the country.

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Seddon reported from Makhachkala, Russia. Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report from Washington.

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Mubarak's last PM found not guilty on corruption charge

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court acquitted Ahmed Shafik, the last prime minister of deposed president Hosni Mubarak, on a charge of embezzling public funds when he was civil aviation minister, a court official said on Sunday.

Shafik, who is on a watch list at border points, was tried in his absence over allegations that he, former civil aviation minister Ibrahim Mannaa, and former Egypt Air chief Tawfiq el-Asi embezzled over 23 million Egyptian pounds ($3.4 million). All three were found not guilty, advisor Ahmed Yousef said.

Shafik, who was a presidential candidate in 2012, left for Abu Dhabi last June two days after his opponent, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, was declared president.

He still faces another corruption charge over his alleged allocation of 40,000 square meters of state land to Mubarak's sons Alaa and Gamal. The ex-leader's sons are in prison, also facing corruption charges.

Their 84-year-old father will be retried from next Saturday after an appeal to quash his life sentence for the killing of protesters by security forces was upheld.

On Sunday the prosecutor general ordered Mubarak's detention for another 15 days for a separate investigation over corruption charges and embezzling public funds. The move ensures that he will remain in custody.

($1 = 6.8383 Egyptian pounds)

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Paul Taylor and Stephen Powell)

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Body of Nevada state official found, 4 arrested

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A sheriff says a body believed to be that of Nevada's chief insurance examiner was found Saturday in a river in Carson City, and four suspects were arrested in his disappearance.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong says while a positive identification and cause of death haven't been officially established, investigators believe searchers found the blanket-wrapped body of William McCune in the Carson River.

He says all four suspects are from the Carson City area, but detectives were unsure of their relationship to the 62-year-old McCune or the motive for the slaying.

Investigators suspected foul play after finding evidence Thursday of a violent struggle in McCune's apartment in Carson City.

Twenty-three-year-old Michael Evans and 20-year-old Anthony Elliot were booked on murder charges, while 20-year-old Makyla Blackmore and 22-year-old Raul Garcia were arrested on burglary charges.

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Nevada official's body found in river; 4 arrested

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A body believed to be that of Nevada's missing chief insurance examiner was found wrapped in a blanket and bound with duct tape Saturday in a river in Carson City, and four suspects were arrested in the case, authorities said.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said that while a positive identification and cause of death have not been officially established, investigators believe the body found by searchers in the Carson River is that of William McCune, who disappeared earlier this week.

Authorities suspected foul play after finding evidence Thursday of a bloody, violent struggle in McCune's apartment in Carson City. Deputies were called to the apartment after the 62-year-old McCune failed to board a flight with a co-worker and other employees found no sign of him when they went to his residence.

All four suspects are from the Carson City area, Furlong said, but detectives were unsure of their relationship to McCune or the motive for the slaying.

Still, investigators continue to believe McCune's death concerned "personal" matters and was not work-related, the sheriff said. He declined to elaborate.

Michael Evans, 23, and Anthony Elliot, 20, were booked on murder charges, while Raul Garcia, 22, and Makyla Blackmore, 20, were arrested on burglary charges.

Evans was taken into custody in Carson City, while the others were arrested Saturday morning on the Las Vegas Strip. Furlong believes the latter three fled Carson City on Friday after news broke of McCune's disappearance.

"At this point, we believe all four took part in his murder and disappearance," Furlong told The Associated Press. "We anticipate that the district attorney's office will amend the criminal complaint to also charge (Garcia and Blackmore) with murder."

It wasn't immediately clear whether any of the four had an attorney, and the Las Vegas and Carson City jails don't make new inmates available to the media for comment. The three suspects in Las Vegas are expected to be returned to Carson City within a week, Furlong said.

McCune had held his position since December 2009 and worked similar jobs for two decades before that, said Nevada Division of Insurance spokesman Jake Sunderland.

As head of the division's corporate and financial affairs section, McCune worked to ensure the solvency of insurance companies in the state. He was charged with ensuring each company had sufficient money in their reserves to cover all claims and obligations.

McCune was single and without any known children, Furlong said, and there was no forced entry at his home.

The sheriff said the suspects were spotted in the area of McCune's apartment. He credited their arrests to "relentless" detective work and "some great tips from a lot of people and a lot of businesses."

While authorities have not found McCune's pickup truck, they located its license plates Friday night at a Carson City residence that Evans was known to have frequented, the sheriff said.

"We're still searching for the truck, but it's unlicensed," Furlong said. McCune's car was found Thursday at a nearby apartment complex.

Investigators continued to process evidence at McCune's home Saturday, and there was no indication yet of the weapon or weapons involved in the death.

"We haven't finished interviews and work at the scene to substantiate theories about a motive," Furlong said. "We're still processing the house and coming up with many alternatives."

The sheriff's search and rescue team found the body. An autopsy was performed Saturday by the Washoe County medical examiner's office, which will make a positive identification and rule on the cause of death.

Carson City, Nevada's capital, is a jumping-off point 30 miles south of Reno for travelers headed to Lake Tahoe or back to California across the Sierra. It has a population of about 50,000.

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Head found in '89 IDed, linked to serial killer

Almost 25 years after her severed head was found on a golf course, the woman New Jersey police believe was the first victim of a notorious serial killer has finally been identified.

State police said Wednesday Heidi Balch is believed to be the first of 17 women killed by Joel Rifkin during a four-year spree that ended in 1993 when he was pulled over for a missing license plate with a dead women's body in the back of his pickup.

Authorities have long believed the woman whose severed head was found in March 1989 on a golf course in Hopewell Township, near Trenton, was the first woman Rifkin killed. He all but admitted it after his arrest, providing details on where he disposed of her head and legs.

Rifkin was eventually sentenced to more than 200 years in prison for the killings. But Balch's identity remained a mystery for more than two decades.

State Police Det. Sgt. Stephen Urbanski said Balch's parents didn't initially list her as a missing person and Balch, who worked as a prostitute in New York City, used numerous aliases and Social Security numbers.

"It's very rare that you have a story like this," Urbanski said. "The first thing is to ID the body, and then you move on with the investigation, you look at acquaintances and things like that. In this one, the answers were there all along, we just had to put them together."

Rifkin had told police he killed a prostitute he'd known as "Susie," Urbanski said. The search led to New York where investigators focused on a prostitute who'd gone by the name Susan Spencer — and about 15 other names. Some of the bogus Social Security numbers she'd used were traced to Ohio and Florida, so Urbanski went to those states to check missing persons reports.

Finally, investigators learned the woman had once used the name Heidi Balch, who had been listed as a missing person in New York by her aunt in 2001. Even that discovery was complicated by the revelation that the last sighting of Balch was in 1995, six years after the remains were found on the golf course. Urbanski said it was later revealed Balch's aunt hadn't actually seen her niece but that someone had mistakenly told her they had seen Heidi.

The big break came earlier this month when Balch's aunt identified her niece from an arrest photo of Susan Spencer. Subsequent DNA tests of Balch's mother and father, who live in Maryland and Florida, respectively, confirmed the identification.

Balch's parents "expressed shock," Urbanski said. "They knew in their hearts something bad had happened to her, but not to this extent. I don't think they ever imagined she was the first victim of Joel Rifkin."

Urbanski said state police are in the process of reviewing cases of unidentified bodies found in New Jersey from the time Balch's remains were found up until Rifkin's arrest.

John Byrne, a spokesman for the Nassau County district attorney's office, which prosecuted Rifkin, said it was too early to make a determination about whether it would seek to prosecute Rifkin in this case.

"We are still very much in the fact-finding stage," Byrne said.

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Head found in New Jersey believed to be Long Island serial killer's first victim

By Ellen Wulfhorst

(Reuters) - A human head discovered on a New Jersey golf course 24 years ago has been identified and is believed to be the first victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin, according to police.

The head belonged to Heidi Balch, who was murdered and dismembered at age 25 in New York, according to a statement issued on Monday by the Hopewell Township, New Jersey police.

Detectives had long suspected a link between the head and Rifkin after he was arrested in 1993 and questioned but they had been unable to identify the head until now, police said in the statement.

During questioning, Rifkin said he dismembered his first victim, a prostitute, and put her head and legs in streams in New Jersey, police said.

Rifkin was convicted of nine murders and is believed to be responsible for at least 17 deaths, most of them prostitutes. He is serving a 203-year prison sentence.

Police periodically tried to identify the New Jersey head and in 2011 obtained a list of prostitution arrests in New York City, from which they found one whose description matched the victim, according to the statement.

They found a missing person report that matched her description but had been ruled out because it said the woman had been last seen in 1995, six years after the head was discovered.

Police met with the person who filed the missing person's report and now believe the sighting date in the report was erroneous.

DNA samples from the missing prostitute's parents confirmed the identity of the head, police said.

Rifkin will not be charged with Balch's murder in New Jersey, the statement said.

Her head was found along the edge of a stream at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in March 1989 and human legs, found to match the head, were discovered later that spring, police said.

When police stopped Rifkin, who lived in East Meadow, New York, in 1993 for missing a license plate, they found the body of a dead woman in the car truck.

He became known as the Long Island Serial Killer.

(Editing by Toni Reinhold)

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Texas man found guilty in wrongful conviction case

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — A West Texas jury on Wednesday convicted a man for the murder of an Austin woman whose husband was wrongfully convicted of her slaying and spent nearly 25 years in prison before being exonerated.

Jurors in San Angelo found Mark Alan Norwood guilty of capital murder for the 1986 killing of Christine Morton, who was attacked in her north Austin home. Prosecutors said Norwood beat the woman to death.

He was sentenced to life in prison, but is eligible for parole after 15 years. Jurors deliberated for about three hours before returning their verdict.

Morton's husband, Michael, was initially convicted in her death in 1987, but he was exonerated and freed in 2011 after new DNA testing was done on a bloody bandanna found near the couple's home. Investigators said the DNA evidence led them to Norwood, whose DNA was in a national database as a result of his long criminal history.

Michael Morton hugged Norwood's mother outside the courtroom after the trial. He also hugged Norwood's brother, Dale.

Morton told the Austin American-Statesman that what he was feeling was "a mixed bag. It's not a celebration, and it's not a happy day."

"Michael and his family are pleased that justice, at last, has been provided for the memory of Christine Morton," John Raley, Morton's Houston-based attorney, said in an email. Raley spent years working for free on the case after teaming up with the Innocence Project.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office handled Norwood's prosecution, said no verdict can bring back Christine Morton's life or "recover the devastating years that her husband Michael Morton spent unjustly imprisoned for her murder."

"We can only hope that today's verdict provides some much-deserved, but woefully delayed justice for a family that suffered so terribly for so long," Abbott said in a statement.

Norwood's sister, Connie Hoff, said her brother had been railroaded because prosecutors had introduced evidence from the 1988 death of Debra Masters Baker in Austin during the trial. Norwood, 58, also has been charged with capital murder in the death of Baker, who lived near the Mortons.

Hoff said her family is now going through what the Morton family went through when he was convicted.

"This is history repeating itself," she told the American-Statesman.

During closing arguments earlier Wednesday, prosecutor Lisa Tanner told jurors they need to convict Norwood "and not let evil walk out of this room with you."

One of Norwood's lawyers, Ariel Payan, suggested to jurors during closing arguments that the evidence gathered from the bandanna was contaminated.

DNA testing wasn't available when the blood on the bandanna was initially tested in 1986. The testing wasn't done until Michael Morton's attorneys spent years lobbying for it.

Prosecutors also told jurors that a gun Norwood stole from the Mortons' home and later sold linked him to the murder. Morton testified at the trial, telling jurors about the missing gun.

The trial was held in San Angelo after being moved from Williamson County, near Austin, because of publicity in the case. The Texas Attorney General's Office was not seeking the death penalty.

Last month, a special hearing known as a court of inquiry was held to examine whether state District Judge Ken Anderson acted improperly in 1987 when, as Williamson County district attorney, he prosecuted Michael Morton. Morton's lawyers have accused Anderson of intentionally hiding evidence.

Anderson has denied any wrongdoing. A decision by a judge on whether Anderson should face criminal charges in the case might come next month. Anderson also is being sued by the State Bar of Texas for his conduct in the Morton case.

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British father and son found dead in Alps

LYON, France (Reuters) - A 48-year-old British man and his 12-year-old son died in the Alps near Chamonix while hiking on Mont-Blanc, the gendarmerie said on Sunday.

The father called for help on Saturday afternoon, saying his son had disappeared after falling in Le Couloir des Bossons, an area known for being particularly difficult. Mont Blanc is in Europe's tallest mountain range.

Rescue workers, dispatched in a helicopter, could not locate them on Saturday. They found them both dead on Sunday morning.

The man and his son came from Buckingham.

(Reporting by Catherine Lagrange; writing by Ingrid Melander; editing by Keiron Henderson)

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2 Ohio teen football players found guilty of rape

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Two Ohio high school football players who were found guilty of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl are apologizing for their actions.

Steubenville High School students Trent Mays and Ma'Lik Richmond were found guilty Sunday of attacking the girl after an alcohol-fueled party last August. The case roiled the small city and stirred reaction from activists online.

After the verdict was read, both apologized to the victim and to the community. Both were emotional as they spoke, and Richmond struggled at times to talk through his sobs.

Mays apologized for taking a photo of the girl that was posted online and fueled speculation over what happened that night.

The teens could be held in a juvenile jail until they turn 21.

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