Novelist wants new trial in wife's death
N.C. novelist Michael Peterson wants a new trial, claiming prosecutors withheld critical evidence about a possible murder weapon in his wife's death.
Defense attorney Jason Anthony filed the motion in Durham County Superior Court on Wednesday. He said information about a tire iron found in a neighbor's yard wasn't given to Peterson's lawyers before he was convicted of murder in 2003.
Anthony said it was found several days after Kathleen Peterson was found dead in 2001, but withheld until August 2003.
District Attorney David Saacks said investigators ruled it out as a murder weapon. Anthony said the log that showed the tire iron was found and tested wasn't shown to defense lawyers.
Medical examiners said Peterson's wife was beaten to death. Peterson and his attorneys said she died in an accidental fall.
Regional briefs
Iredell County
Statesville
Terry Holliday, superintendent of Iredell-Statesville Schools, was named superintendent of the year by the N.C. Association of School Administrators and the N.C. School Boards Association this week.
Holliday, who has led the district for six years, recently served on a state panel charged with revamping the state's controversial testing system. He wins a $5,000 prize and will compete for the 2009 national honor in February.
North Carolina
Durham
Internal investigators are examining whether some Durham police officers posted derogatory remarks about President-elect Obama on their MySpace pages.
Police Chief Jose Lopez Sr. said the comments did not involve a racial slur, but he wouldn't say what was written or how many officers are being investigated.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that internal affairs specialists were alerted after a police department employee complained about the remarks.
Lopez said even though the remarks were made on a personal Web page, they could violate the department's code of conduct.
MySpace is a social networking Web site that allows people to share information, chats, photos and videos to a network of friends.
Raleigh
The North Carolina NAACP wants North Carolina State University to expel four students accused of painting racist messages about President-elect Obama on campus.
School Chancellor James Oblinger held a closed-door meeting Wednesday with NAACP President Rev. William Barber to discuss the graffiti in the campus free expression tunnel. Barber wants an official response within 48 hours. Oblinger says both sides have agreed to move forward.
Four students admitted spray-painting the messages, including one that used a racial slur and suggested shooting Obama in the head.
Officials have said the unidentified students won't face criminal charges because the writing wasn't a hate crime since it was written on a wall where free speech is encouraged.
Former Gov. Jim Hunt said Wednesday he's not interested in becoming Barack Obama's education secretary but wants to keep advising his administration on education issues.
Hunt, who served a record four terms as governor through 2001, had been on several lists of potential Cabinet members following Obama's presidential victory last week.
Returning from a three-day trip to Seattle for a Gates Foundation event attended by Obama education advisers, Hunt said he still expects to work closely with the U.S. Education Department, but he'll do it from North Carolina.
“I just spent several days with the top Obama people,” Hunt said. “Many encouraged me to do it. I told them I would not go to Washington.”
Chapel Hill
Police at UNC Chapel Hill say a weekend blaze at Gerrard Hall was the work of an arsonist.
The fire early Saturday morning damaged eight chairs and caused some smoke and water damage as well.
Randy Young, a UNC police spokesman, confirmed Wednesday that his agency is investigating the fire as an arson case but would not say what evidence has led police in that direction.
The fire started around 3 a.m. Saturday and set off a sprinkler system within the 19th-century building that has hosted U.S. presidents, poets and Hollywood stars.
Sprinklers partially extinguished the blaze, and fire crews snuffed it completely.
South Carolina
Charleston
A Christian group wants the federal government to stop immigration raids in South Carolina until immigration laws are overhauled.
The S.C. Christian Action Council said the raid in Greenville that resulted in 300 suspected illegal immigrants being detained last month is one of the reasons for its statement.
The Rev. Joe Darby is president of the council's board of directors. Darby said the raid was disturbing because the United State says it's a welcoming country.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez says there will be no suspension of raids. Gonzalez told The Post and Courier of Charleston the agency is enforcing the law.
The Christian Action Council is a partnership of 16 denominations, some 4,300 congregations and nearly 1.1 million members.
Myrtle Beach
The Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce says it plans to increase its online advertising next year to attract visitors.
Chamber marketing vice president Scott Schult said this week that the chamber will spend more than half of its $3 million to $4 million media budget online in the spring, with ads targeted by market on sites such as Google and Yahoo.
The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reported that Schult also said the chamber will replace it's tagline of “America's Beach Playground” with South Carolina. Schult said studies show some people still think Myrtle Beach is in Florida or North Carolina. The budget has been scaled back primarily because the state cut millions of dollars from a marketing grant program the chamber had used to pump up its own budget.
Police digest
South Carolina
Greenville
Greenville County sheriff's deputies say a Greenville woman has been charged with arson in connection with three fires at a church where she worked.
The Greenville News reported that 39-year-old Tracy Blassingame is charged with second degree arson and malicious damage to property.
Sheriff's spokesman Shea Smith says the first fire occurred Oct. 30 in the church office at Bibleway Full Gospel Missionary Baptist Church.
Smith says the fires caused minimal damage. He said Blassingame was one of a few people who had access to the church.
Myrtle Beach
Family members say a 12-year-old Boy Scout who died at a camp event in Williamsburg County had collapsed in gym class earlier in the week.
Williamsburg County Coroner Harrison McKnight said Cameron Ahalt of Pawleys Island collapsed and died after a race Saturday at the Fall Boy Scout Camporee in Hemingway.
McKnight told The Sun News of Myrtle Beach an autopsy at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston showed no apparent cause of death.
The boy's father, Sean Ahalt, said Tuesday his son apparently died from a heart defect that couldn't be detected. Ahalt said his son collapsed in gym class at Waccamaw Middle School on Nov. 5 and was taken to Waccamaw Community Hospital. Ahalt said doctors released him to return to school and resume a normal schedule by Friday.
Lincoln County
Denver
Lincoln County authorities are looking for a man who robbed the CVS Pharmacy on N.C. 16 north in Denver around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
According to the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office, the man walked into the pharmacy and demanded painkiller drugs by brand name and threatened to shoot, but he did not show a weapon.
The pharmacist followed the man's instructions and placed some drugs in a bag the man placed on the counter. The man then left by the front door and ran behind the building into a wooded area.
The suspect was described as a white male, about 5-feet-7 with short cropped hair or a shaved head. He appeared to be in his mid-20s, with a slender build and was wearing a dark blue jacket, dark shirt and jeans.
No one was injured in the robbery. The East Lincoln Charter School was put on lockdown for a brief period.
Officers were searching a wooded area near the Westport Golf Course with a K-9 unit.
Caldwell County
Lenoir
Police charged a Lenoir man Tuesday in connection with a stabbing that sent a second man to the hospital.
Caldwell Memorial Hospital officials called police Tuesday evening about a stabbing victim at the facility, Lenoir Police Department authorities said. Investigators determined that the victim had fought with a man at a Frontier Way home, and the man stabbed him in the chest with a knife.
Officers arrested James Oscar Whittington, 46, and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury. He was placed in the Caldwell County jail under $100,000 secured bond.
Paramedics took the victim to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, where he was listed in good condition Wednesday. Hannah Mitchell
This story was originally published November 13, 2008 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Novelist wants new trial in wife's death."