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Joaquin Phoenix unhurt when his car overturns

Leo L. Boatman is indicted on two first-degree murder charges in the deaths of two campers.

By wire services
Published January 28, 2006

Joaquin Phoenix's car overturned on a canyon road in Los Angeles and collided with another vehicle after his brakes went out, police said. No injuries were reported.

The Walk the Line star was driving east above Sunset Strip about 2:50 p.m. Thursday when he realized his brakes were not working, a police spokesman said. Phoenix lost control of the car, which overturned and hit another vehicle also headed east.

The actor's publicist, Susan Patricola, said in a statement that Phoenix, 31, was wearing his seat belt and walked away from the scene after being helped out of his vehicle by a passer-by.

Phoenix is expected to attend the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night; he is nominated for best actor for Walk the Line.

Kate Moss took refuge in a Paris police station this week to escape paparazzi chasing her car, police said Friday.

About a dozen photographers followed the supermodel's car as she left the Ritz Hotel late Thursday, police said.

Moss, 31, lost contracts with H&M, Burberry and Chanel after Britain's Daily Mirror tabloid published pictures in September of her allegedly using cocaine in a London music studio where her then-boyfriend, Pete Doherty, was recording with his group, Babyshambles. Doherty, meanwhile, was jailed Friday in England after pleading guilty to possessing drugs for the second time in a week. He was arrested Thursday in East London.

Doherty, 26, former frontman for the Libertines, pleaded guilty to heroin possession and was ordered jailed until a hearing on Feb. 8.

The publisher of two memoirs by Nasdijj, an award-winning Navajo author whose identity has been challenged, said Friday that it would no longer ship his books and would accept returns of copies from book sellers.

The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C., reported Friday that Nasdijj's Social Security number matched that of white man, Timothy P. Barrus, who had a career writing gay pornography.

The two memoirs, The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping and Geronimo's Bones, had few copies in print. The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping, published in 2003, won a PEN/Beyond Margins award.

OCALA - The Largo teenager accused of gunning down two campers in the Ocala National Forest this month has confessed on tape, the Marion County Sheriff's Office announced Friday.

Leo L. Boatman, 19, who is being held at the Marion County jail, asked to speak with detectives Wednesday morning and then recounted the murders over several hours, said sheriff's Maj. Chris Blair. His public defender, Bill Miller, was not present and said he had not seen the videotape.

"Obviously, I'm not happy that my client made statements without my being there, but until I learn more about the context of the conversation, I am going to withhold judgment," Miller said.

Marion County sheriff's officials released few details but said Boatman's admissions were consistent with physical evidence they found at the crime scene. Boatman, whom officials have described as an aspiring serial killer, did not say why he decided to talk after previously declining to do so.

Investigators would not say whether he explained his motive.

"It's a heinous crime," Blair said. "And he has shown no remorse."

Also on Friday, a grand jury indicted Boatman on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Amber Marie Peck and John Parker. The bodies of the two 26-year-old college students were found Jan. 7.

Assistant State Attorney Rock Hooker said no decision had been made on seeking the death penalty. Prosecutors have yet to receive many records regarding Boatman's previous offenses and his time in juvenile detention.

During the session, Boatman also suggested he had information about the unsolved fatal shooting of Thomas Gregory, a barber killed Dec. 30 in Clearwater, authorities said. Clearwater detectives have questioned Boatman but do not consider him a suspect.

"He was forthcoming, but with that said, he revealed nothing to detectives that's not publicly known," Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor said. "Still, although he is not a suspect, he has not yet been ruled out."

Shelor would not detail Boatman's comments about the unsolved case or say whether he took responsibility. Police found Gregory's Honda Civic crashed into a tree at Pennsylvania Avenue and Lee Street. He was behind the wheel, bleeding from a bullet wound to his chest.

In the Marion County case, authorities have said Boatman took a Greyhound bus from Largo to Marion County on Jan. 3. The next day, they say he hiked into a secluded area of the forest called Hidden Pond, found Peck and Parker, and shot them to death with an AK-47 assault rifle.

He returned to the Largo mobile home he shared with his uncle on Jan. 5 and resumed a normal life, investigators say. A tip from a motorist who picked up Boatman hitchhiking near the forest led to his arrest on Jan. 10.

Authorities have said that among the supplies Boatman bought the day before the murders was a waterproof disposable camera. They are still looking for the camera, and wouldn't say whether Boatman's statement could help them find it.

Boatman's criminal record date back to age 10, the year his mother drowned in a river. His father was never part of his life, his family said.

In 1997, he was arrested by Pinellas County sheriff's deputies on charges of arson and burglary. Two years later, St. Petersburg police arrested him on charges of criminal mischief and grand larceny.

He ended up in foster homes when family could not control him, an uncle said. Boatman was put in the juvenile justice system at 12 and stayed until he was released in August.

Boatman has been on a suicide watch, sheriff's officials said. His next court appearance is scheduled for mid February.

[Last modified January 28, 2006, 01:37:10]