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Father kills 3 kids, ex-wife, himself at park

By Times Wires
Published November 24, 2007

LAYTONSVILLE, Md.

A gunman shot and killed his ex-wife, their three children and himself in a small-town park where they had met for the woman to hand over the youngsters for a visit, police said Friday. Their bodies were found Thursday evening in the tiny community of Unity when police stopped in the deserted park after noticing two cars with their engines running, said Wayne Jerman, Montgomery County assistant police chief. The bodies of Gail Louise Pumphrey, 43, of Woodbine, and the three children - David, 12, Megan, 10, and Brandon, 6, according to a neighbor - were found in the cars, Jerman said. David Peter Brockdorff, 40, of Frederick, was found nearby with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.

New twist to lethal injection challenge

A Kentucky death row prisoner claims that giving a condemned inmate a sedative on the day of execution interferes with the drug cocktail used in lethal injections. The lawsuit by Gregory L. Wilson, 51, is a new challenge to Kentucky's execution method after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments from two other death row inmates who claim it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The high court has allowed just one execution since agreeing to hear arguments in January in a case that could affect how executions are carried out in 36 states, including Florida.

DARIEN, Conn.

Rapist who fled freed from prison

A former high school wrestling star who fled to Europe before his rape trial and lived a jet-set life for years before surrendering was released from prison Friday. Alex Kelly, 40, was released from the Bridgeport Correctional Center just after 7 a.m., said Correction Department spokesman Brian Garnett. Kelly was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping a 16-year-old girl in February 1986. He later pleaded no contest to raping a 17-year-old girl four days after the first incident, but received no additional jail time. He only served 10 years in prison because his sentence came under the state's now-defunct system of giving inmates time off for good behavior. He will spend the next 10 years on probation and must pay a $10,000 fine. In 1987, just before his trial was about to start, he fled the country and spent the next eight years in Europe, skiing, hang gliding and mountain climbing with money authorities say his wealthy parents sent him.

TRENTON, N.J.

Work after holiday galling to some

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine bucked state tradition and kept state offices open on Friday, saying they should be open to serve citizens. That angered state workers, but the movepleased people like Juan Perez, 17, who took advantage of the day off from school to get his driving permit. New Jersey has been among at least 24 states who let its workers take the day after Thanksgiving as a paid holiday, but Corzine said that the decades-long tradition would stop and that state workers who wanted off would have to use either a vacation or personal day. The workers weren't happy, making more than 5,000 calls to the Democrat's office. State parking lots were much emptier than typical Friday, indicating many got the day off anyway.

[Last modified November 24, 2007, 00:32:19]