Courts

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Federal prosecutors in New Mexico have begun steps to seek the death penalty against two Arizona prison escapees and a woman who allegedly helped them escape.

A federal grand jury on Wednesday returned a superseding indictment against 45-year-old John Charles McCluskey, 42-year-old Tracy Allen Province and 44-year-old Casslyn Mae Welch.

They are accused in the murders of Gary and Linda Haas, of Tecumseh, Okla., whose bodies were found with their burned-out recreational trailer near Santa Rosa.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A jury found a rambling street preacher guilty Friday of the 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in a case that has tugged at hearts around the nation ever since the Utah teenager was snatched from her bedroom and resurfaced nine months later.

Brian David Mitchell could face up to a life in prison when he is sentenced.

SANTA FE — The hotly contested issue regarding the legality of a citizen vote on the question of whether to reconstruct the municipal building on its original site at Ashley Pond has been decided – at least in the short term – there will be no election.

District Court Judge Barbara Vigil ruled Monday to grant plaintiffs Christine and George Chandler’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop the special election on the grounds that it is illegal.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An Albuquerque law firm failed to properly investigate its claim that a nursing home patient lost his penis because of the facility's negligence, according to a lawsuit filed by the facility.

In the federal lawsuit filed in September, THI of New Mexico at Valle Norte accused the Harvey Law Firm of malicious abuse of process and civil conspiracy stemming from a July 2007 case for a client, James Tracy. The dispute was first reported by the Albuquerque Journal.