National briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 5, 2001

Man guilty of assault on girl, 9

CHICAGO -- A jury Wednesday found a 29-year-old man guilty of charges he sexually assaulted and beat a 9-year-old girl, leaving her blind, unable to walk and brain damaged.

Patrick Sykes was convicted on four counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, and one each of aggravated kidnapping and attempted murder in the January 1997 attack.

The child, now 13 and called Girl X in the media, testified during the trial, communicating by raising her head and making eye movements.

"This is her day -- one of the bravest little girls that I have ever been involved in an investigation with," said Chicago police Detective Fred Wheat.

Defense attorney Robert Byman said he still believes Sykes is innocent. He could be sentenced to at least 30 years on each of the six counts.

The child had been left for dead in a filthy stairwell at a high-rise public housing building that witnesses say was used by gang members as a base for selling drugs. Gang symbols had been scrawled on her body with markers.

She testified the attacker lured her into an apartment rented by the defendant's girlfriend. She did not identify Sykes by name.

In April 1997, police arrested Sykes, who at age 17 had been convicted of armed robbery and criminal sexual assault.

Detectives said Sykes confessed after three days of questioning. They said he also told them where to find a can of cockroach killer he had poured down the girl's mouth to destroy any DNA evidence.

Before the trial, however, questions arose about the police handling of the case.

Report: Design flaw caused Osprey crash

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- The crash of a V-22 Osprey aircraft that killed four Marines in December was caused by a design flaw that had been known for months but went largely uncorrected, according to the Washington Post, citing pilots who participated in an investigation of the accident.

The pilots, all current or former officers in the Marines' first Osprey squadron, said the design flaw in the aircraft's hydraulic system was compounded by a software glitch that could have been detected by more rigorous testing. But they said they believe both problems slipped by because the Marine Corps wanted to win Pentagon funding for full production of the plane.

Boy wants to marry, not sue, teacher in jail

SEATTLE -- A boy who fathered two children with his former grade school teacher, who is serving a prison term for child rape, doesn't want anything to do with a lawsuit filed by his mother.

Vili Fualaau, now 17, wants to marry Mary Kay Letourneau and separate himself from the legal battle after he turns 18 in June, according to a deposition filed recently in court.

As in the past, he denied being a victim in the relationship, which began when he was 12 and Letourneau was 34, married and a mother of four. The two have written a book and their relationship also has been the subject of a made-for-television movie.

The $1-million lawsuit was filed on his behalf by his mother, Soona, who said Highline School District personnel and police in suburban Des Moines failed to protect him from Letourneau's advances.

Letourneau is serving a seven-year, five-month prison term for second-degree child rape because of her relationship with Fualaau. She is expected to be in prison until 2004.

Fualaau wavered on whether he would marry Letourneau immediately after turning 18 or following her release, but said he hoped they could move to Hawaii or Paris.

"My life's always been really, just pretty cold. I've been around a lot of cold people," Fualaau said in the deposition. "She's really happy. She always has a smile on her face, you know. She -- she's really bright. She really cares about people. She's a good mother."

Elsewhere . . .

BELT SAVES BOY WHO LOST LEG: -- A boy whose leg was severed by a train used his belt as a tourniquet to save himself from bleeding to death -- a skill he learned from his mother when she was studying to be a nurse.

Alex Compton, 10, was crossing the tracks near his home in Abbeville, S.C., Monday when his foot got caught on rocks.

After the accident, he removed his belt and tightened it around his thigh to stem the bleeding, rescue workers said. A neighbor found the boy. His leg also was found but doctors couldn't reattach it.

RATHER APOLOGIZES: Dan Rather, the CBS anchor, publicly apologized Wednesday for being the featured speaker at a Democratic Party fundraising event in Austin, Texas, last month. In a statement, Rather said: "I made an embarrassing and regrettable error in judgment by going to this event. It was a serious mistake, which I acknowledge."

STUDENT CHARGED IN BABY DEATH: A 19-year old Kentucky college freshman was charged with murder after an infant believed to be her newborn girl was found dead in her dorm room, authorities said. Murray State University student Angelita Turner apparently gave birth in her dorm room last week, police said.

SHOOTER SENTENCED TO PSYCH CENTER: Elizabeth Bush, a 14-year-old girl who admitted she shot and wounded a classmate at a Pennsylvania parochial school, was sentenced Wednesday to an open-ended term at a psychiatric facility.

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