WAYCROSS JOURNAL-HERALD
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Federal Prosecutor Reviewing Death Of A Valdosta Student
MACON (AP) — A federal prosecutor said Thursday that he is conducting a formal review of facts and evidence in the death of a teenager whose body was found inside a rolled-up wrestling mat in his high school gym. U.S. Attorney Michael Moore said that if he uncovers sufficient evidence to warrant a criminal civil rights investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson he will ask the FBI to conduct it. “I will follow the facts wherever they lead. My objective is to discover the truth,” Moore said. Moore said he’s reviewing a previous investigation by a sheriff’s office and two autopsies done on Johnson, along with photos, videos and other evidence and information. He said he’s met with investigators and the attorneys for Johnson’s family. “I am committed to doing everything in my power to answer the questions that exist in this case, or as many of them as we can,” Moore said. The 17-year-old’s body was found Jan. 11 stuck in an upright mat in the school gym after his parents reported him missing the night before. Lowndes County sheriff’s investigators concluded Johnson died in a freak accident, but his family insists that someone must have killed him. An attorney for the Johnsons applauded Moore for taking a closer look. “We have to solve this murder mystery and we think the federal government’s intervention is one step closer to solving this mystery,” said attorney Benjamin Crump. David S. Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Miami, said it’s
SYDNEY (AP) — Australia’s ambassador met with Indonesian government officials who summoned him today following reports the Australian Embassy in Jakarta is a hub for Washington’s secret electronic data collection program. A document from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, published this week by German magazine Der Spiegel, describes a signals intelligence program called “Stateroom” in which U.S., British, Australian and Canadian embassies house surveillance equipment to collect electronic communications. Those countries, along with New Zealand, have an intelligencesharing agreement known as “Five Eyes.” The Australian embassy in Jakarta was listed as one of the embassies involved in a report
Mostly Cloudy
Rain LIkely Tonight, Saturday
82/61Lo
Hi
—page 3—
Friday, Nov. 1, 2013
‘GO DAWGS!’
BLACKSHEAR — If any such thing as “good karma” does exist, it didn’t hurt one bit, Georgia fans, that Coach Vince Dooley was at PrimeSouth Bank here Thursday communing with like-minded Bulldog fans, signing autographs and talking about Saturday’s Georgia-Florida game. Fans of all ages (John Strickland, at right, came dressed in full gear to block and tackle) approached the legendary coach who enjoyed the afternoon’s conversation. John wasn’t wearing shoulder pads, but he had everything else going, including an “oval G” helmet, which Dooley signed, and a No. 24 jersey, a la Lindsay Scott. “Glad you’re gonna be in Jacksonville to help us,” one fan told the coach, whose lifetime record against Florida was 17-7-1. “I’ll be there ... I’ll do what I can,” he smiled. Fred Barber, one of Dooley’s original Dogs was on hand. He said he was “... helping Coach find his way around. You can get lost in Blackshear!” Before winding up his twohour visit, Coach lined up (above) with the PrimeSouth staff (including President Nick Taylor, wearing
Australia Linked To U.S. For Spying In Indonesia (see TEEN’S, page 14)
Heinze Gets Life With No Parole For Killing Eight People In 2009
Waycross, Ga.
from Australia’s Fairfax media, along with Australian embassies in Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Dili in East Timor; and High Commissions in Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Des Ball, a top Australian intelligence expert, told The Associated Press he had personally seen covert antennas in five of the embassies named in the report. Indonesia’s government dubbed such actions “a serious breach of diplomatic norms and ethics” and summoned Australian Ambassador Greg Moriarty to a meeting with the Foreign Ministry’s Secretary General Budi Bowoleksono today. “From my perspective it was a good meeting and now I have to go and report directly to my government,” Moriarty said afterward. (see SPYING page 16)
Title On The Line
Bradwell Institute is coming to play the Ware County High Gators in Memorial Stadium (today’s masthead photo) today at 7:30 p.m. This could be the night the Gators wrap up the Region 3-AAAAA title and prepare to advance to the playoffs as the region’s top seed.
Photos By GARY GRIFFIN
his newest Georgia necktie) to render a hearty “Go Dawgs!” Current Georgia coach Mark Richt doesn’t quite have Dooley’s record
versus Florida. He’s 4-8. But his Dawgs have won two in a row in Jax and are favored to win Saturday.
wjhnews.com
By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press BRUNSWICK — Dressed in orange jailhouse garb rather than the suit he wore at trial, Guy Heinze Jr. bowed his head as a judge sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole. A quirk of legal maneuvering had spared Heinze from a possible death sentence for the 2009 beating deaths of his father and seven others. Relatives of the victims said they never wanted to see Heinze executed. “That’s the easy way out,” said Diane Isenhower, whose ex-husband and four children were among the eight people beaten to death four years ago inside a cramped mobile home they shared with Heinze. “From day one, we told them, ‘No death penalty,’” said Hazel Sumner, who identified herself as a cousin to Isenhower’s family. Heinze, 26, was sentenced Thursday afternoon in Glynn County Superior Court less than a week after a jury convicted him of malice murder in the Aug. 29, 2009, slayings. Prosecutors dropped the death penalty as an option last week as part of a lastminute deal with defense attorneys that allowed them to avoid a hung jury. Under Georgia law, Heinze faced an automatic life sentence once the death penalty was off the table. The only thing Judge Stephen Scarlett had to decide was whether the defendant would ever be eligible for parole. Heinze’s attorneys, who insisted he is innocent, presented no witnesses and said little to try to persuade Scarlett before he imposed his sentence. Newell Hamilton Jr., Heinze’s lead defense attorney, declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing. “There are people who believe in Guy and believe he’s innocent,” said Heather Teston, who said she
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has been a friend of Heinze since high school. “Maybe they should have moved the trial somewhere else .... I think ultimately he was railroaded by the justice system.” In a frantic 911 call made the morning the bodies were discovered, Heinze cried out: “My whole family is dead!” Heinze’s trial nearly ended with a hung jury last Heinze week on the third day of deliberations. But prosecutors last Friday dropped the death penalty in a deal with Heinze’s lawyers to allow the trial judge to dismiss one juror and replace him with an alternate. A guilty verdict was returned four hours later. Afterward, prosecutors said only that there had been “a situation” with the dismissed juror that contributed to the deadlock. Jurors were unaware that prosecutors had ruled out a possible death sentence until after they returned with a guilty verdict. Prosecutors said Heinze had been smoking crack cocaine when he killed his father and the other victims, all members of an extended family. They said he killed the first victim in a dispute over a bottle of prescription painkillers he wanted to steal, then killed the others to avoid getting caught. Each of the victims died from multiple crushing blows to the head from what police believe was a shotgun barrel, jurors heard. Autopsies showed they suffered a combined total of more than 220 wounds. The murder weapon was never found. Although the attack happened in the night and most of the victims were found in bed, defense attorneys argued a single assailant couldn’t possibly have inflicted such carnage.
Congress Gets To Govern Self Under Confusing ‘Obamacare’
AP PHOTO
Australian ambassador to Indonesia Greg Moriarty arrives at the Indonesian foreign ministry in Jakarta, summoned about spying claims.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Think you’re confused by “Obamacare.” It’s roiling Capitol Hill behind the scenes, too. Members of Congress are governing themselves under President Barack Obama’s signature law, which means they have great leeway in how to apply it to their own staffs. For House members and senators, it’s about a section of the law that may — or may not — require lawmakers to toss some staffers off of their federal health insurance and into the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. The verdict from congressional officers is ultimately that lawmakers, as employers, have discretion over who among their staffs gets ejected, and who stays. And they don’t have to say who, how many or why. What they all say is this: “I followed the law,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., echoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and others. But the law as written is open to broad interpretation, inspiring a bureaucratic
web of memos, regulations and guidance that members of Congress say allows them to proceed on the question of staffers and coverage as they see fit. Lawmakers this week were required to finalize plans for who stays on federal insurance and who’s forced onto an exchange. The Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, only requires members of Congress and their “official” staff members to get health insurance through one of the law’s marketplaces, or exchanges. Guidance memos from the Senate’s financial clerk and the House’s chief administrative officer, obtained by The Associated Press, define “official” aides as those who work in the lawmakers’ personal offices. Committee and leadership aides, then, would be exempt and could stay on the federal health insurance program. Unless lawmakers decide otherwise. “Individual members or their designees are in the best position to determine which staff work in the official office of each
Get Yer ‘Game On’Tonight! Gator Nation, Get To ‘The Swamp’ By 15 Minutes Till 7 To Honor The WCHS Seniors On ‘Senior Night’ Tonight! Tame Bradwell’s Tigers!
(see CONGRESS, page 14)
W h a t ’s I n s i d e Vol. 95, No. 259
Billy Graham ______________4 Church News ____________8-9 Classified Ads ________15,16 Comics__________________10 Dear Abby ________________4 Editorials ________________5 Extended Forecast ________3 Family News __________12-13 Obituaries ________________3 Sports __________________6-7