Spammer, wife, child found dead

Bennett, Colo.

A spammer killed his wife and daughter in an apparent murder-suicide Thursday while being sought after escaping from prison last weekend, authorities said.

A teenage girl was shot in the neck and a baby was found unhurt inside the vehicle where the three bodies were found, Arapahoe County undersheriff Mark Campbell said. The relationship between the girl, baby and the convict wasn't clear.

The bodies of Edward "Eddie" Davidson, his wife and 3-year-old daughter were found in an SUV in a driveway in Bennett, 25 miles east of Denver. All three had been shot, U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said.

Authorities had sought Davidson, 35, since Sunday, when he and his wife drove away from a minimum-security federal prison 90 miles south of Denver.

Albany, N.Y.

4 Spitzer appointees accused in leak case

Three former aides to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the former head of the State Police were charged with ethics violations Thursday over travel records released to discredit a political rival, a scandal that consumed Spitzer's administration before it was wrecked by one involving a prostitute.

Spitzer was not charged. The state Public Integrity Commission harshly criticized the Democrat but said it did not have enough evidence to charge him over the misuse of travel records concerning then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican.

The commission found former Spitzer aides Darren Dopp, Richard Baum and William Howard and former State Police head Preston Felton conspired to smear Bruno by releasing his travel records to a reporter.

Phoenix

Gunman shoots 3 people at college

A former student shot three people Thursday in a computer room at a Phoenix community college, injuring one critically, authorities said. The gunman fled but a suspect was arrested nearby.

The shooting at South Mountain Community College was part of a running dispute between the suspect and one victim, said Sgt. Andy Hill, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department.

Two of the injured were struck by stray bullets, he said. The suspect was identified as Rodney Smith, 22, who police said was a former student at the college.

A 19-year-old man was in critical condition, while a 20-year-old woman was upgraded from critical to stable condition and a 17-year-old boy was in stable condition, hospital officials said.

Jarratt, Va.

Man executed for fatal beating

A killer who argued Virginia's procedures for lethal injection were unconstitutional was executed Thursday after a federal appeals court upheld the primary method of capital punishment in the nation's second-busiest death chamber.

Christopher Scott Emmett, 36, was convicted of beating a co-worker to death with a brass lamp in 2001 so he could steal the man's money to buy crack cocaine.

His appeal was the first to require a federal appeals court to interpret a U.S. Supreme Court decision in April that upheld Kentucky's three-drug method of lethal injection and apply it to another state's procedures.

Also

Demetris McCoy, 18, who was shown on a video coaxing his 2- and 4-year-old nephews into smoking marijuana, was sentenced Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas, to eight years in prison. He pleaded guilty to two charges of injury to a child/causing bodily injury.

Seattle Times news services