Denied Money, Panhandler Lights California Man, Car on Fire

California Key to Massive Powerball Jackpot

May 182013

Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — As the countdown ticks on to Saturday night’s record Powerball drawing, the jackpot has swollen to over $600 million, largely due to California’s participation in the game, lottery officials said.

In the one month since California joined the list of 42 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands in playing, Powerball fever has swept across the Golden State.

California, the country’s most populous state, has skyrocketed to the top three states in terms of ticket sales, alongside Florida and New York, according to lottery officials.

“Once California joined the Powerball family, we helped change the dynamics to this game because of the mere size of the state and the number of players that we have,” a California lottery spokesperson told ABC News.

The size of the jackpot has created a frenzy that has also driven ticket sales, according to lottery officials. The previous record for a Powerball jackpot was $587.5 million on Nov. 28, 2012.

Tickets sold at a rate of 600,000 per hour in New York on Friday, New York lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman told ABC News.

It’s expected that tickets will continue to sell at a rapid rate until the 10 p.m. ET cut-off time Saturday night. The winning numbers will be drawn at 10:50 p.m. ET, perhaps minting a few new millionaires.

However, if no one matches all five numbers plus the Powerball, the jackpot will continue to balloon.

Kelly Cripe, media director for the Texas Lottery, which is one of the states in the Powerball lottery, said the next drawing would be May 22 and estimated the pot would be at least an astonishing $925 million. The frenzy of such a massive jackpot would likely push it even closer to $1 billion.

The odds of winning the grand prize are one in 175,223,510, according to the Powerball website.

While Saturday’s jackpot is a Powerball record, it’s not the biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history. That honor belongs to the Mega Millions, which paid out a record $656 million on March 30, 2012.

Leila Fowler 911 Call Released, Brother to Appear in Court

May 152013

ABC News | Calaveras Unified School District(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — In the 911 call from the day 8-year-old Leila Fowler was stabbed to death, her father’s girlfriend, who was not home, didn’t appear to know that Leila has been hurt. She told the operator that Leila was “freaking out” after her brother said he had allegedly seen an intruder in the house.

The brother has since been arrested and charged with second-degree murder with special circumstances for using a dangerous weapon in the killing. He is expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday, though his name has not been released because he is a minor.

On April 27, Leila’s 12-year-old brother told Valley Springs, Calif., authorities that he found his sister stabbed to death after an intruder broke into their home. There were no adults at the house when the stabbing occurred. The boy said he called his parents, who alerted sheriff’s deputies.

“My children are at home alone and a man just ran out of my house. My older son was in the bathroom and my daughter started screaming,” the panicked woman said in the 911 call released by the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office. “When he came out, there was a man outside my house. I need an officer there.”

The woman calling was Leila’s father’s girlfriend, according to ABC News’ Sacramento affiliate KXTV.

When the dispatcher asked if the children had seen the intruder, the woman said, “They did see him. My daughter is freaking out right now.”

She also said the children were “really scared” and that she was trying to get home.

The boy told authorities the intruder, whom he described as a tall man with a muscular build, fled the scene. The boy’s description launched a 15-day manhunt that included door-to-door searches and divers in a reservoir.

The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office in Northern California announced the arrest of the 12-year-old boy on May 10.

Mark Reichel and Steve Plesser, attorneys from a firm hired by the boy’s family to represent him, told KXTV that they met with him Wednesday at a juvenile detention facility.

“He’s actually doing very well right now,” Plesser said. “As well as can be expected in these really difficult times.”

The two attorneys said they plan to ask the court to allow the boy to return to his family.

Neighbors in Valley Springs said they feared all along that Leila’s brother — not a mystery man the boy described — might be responsible for the girl’s stabbing death.

“It made us sadder, because he’s just 12 years old,” Barbara Barron told ABC News. “The family has lost two children now.”

Weather May Aid Crews Fighting California Wildfires

May 042013

Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — Wildfires raging through Southern California have tripled in size to 28,000 acres as firefighters work to bring the blazes threatening nearly 4,000 homes under control.

More than 2,000 firefighters and structure protection crews from across the region worked tirelessly to protect buildings, including a naval training facility, from the raging fires in Camarillo, Calif.

Even residents have joined in to quell the early season flames. Eighteen year-old Brittany Smolarski used a bottle of water and her riding boots to stomp out a sudden spot fire while helping to evacuate horses.

“I’ve never been that close to a fire,” Smolarski told Good Morning America. “That smoke is pretty deadly. I’m trying to protect everything that I can. I don’t want my barn to burn up.”

With red-flag warnings lifted on Friday, weather conditions may be turning in favor of the firefighters, reports the Los Angeles Times. The weekend’s weather is expected to be cooler and more humid. Inland areas could temperature drops of 15 to 20 degrees along with potential rain showers that would aid efforts to control the flames.

Judge Defies Victim’s Family by Sending DUI Driver to Prison

Apr 212013

iStockPhoto/Thinkstock(FRESNO, Calif.) — The judge who sentenced a Fresno, Calif., man to jail for his role in a deadly drunk driving accident, defied the wishes of the victim’s family who had asked that the driver not receive jail time.

Judge Alan Simpson sentenced 25-year-old Brian Cappelluti to a year in jail after Cappelluti pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter and DUI charges on Thursday.

In 2011, Cappelluti was arrested after driving drunk with a blood alcohol level of .21 and crashing into a traffic light. The accident took the life of passenger 23-year-old J.W. Pardini, a close friend of Cappelluti’s.

Before Cappelluti’s sentencing, the Pardini family wrote a letter to the judge asking that Cappelluti not be given jail time.

“JW is gone forever. Brian has to live with the thought of this accident every day for the rest of his life,” the family wrote in a statement. “We suggest that probation for Brian is the proper corrective action.”

Another passenger in the car, Marion Walker, was severely injured during the crash. But she also spoke out for Cappelluti and asked the judge for leniency in his sentencing.

“All of us will pay for this accident for the rest of our lives,” Walker said. “We all understood what could happen and it did. I ask you not to take away my surviving support.”

While Simpson’s sentence of one year in jail is more than the defense wanted, it is far less than the five years in prison the prosecutors had asked for.

“I think the outcome was fair and just and everybody can feel that justice was done,” defense attorney Rick Berman told ABC News affiliate KFSN-TV in Fresno after the sentencing.

An earlier plea bargain fell apart in February after Cappelluti refused a deal that could have resulted in his spending six years in prison. During that hearing, Judge Houry Sanderson chided Cappelluti for relying on the kindness of Pardini’s family.

“If he was not related at all to these victims at all, total strangers, I am very sure that the position of these families would have been very different,” Sanderson said.

Cappelluti could be released from jail after eight months.

Denied Money, Panhandler Lights California Man, Car on Fire

Apr 132013

KABC-TV/DT(LONG BEACH, Calif.) — Police arrested a panhandler who reportedly lit a man on fire outside a convenience store in Long Beach, Calif. after not receiving money.

The 63-year-old victim was hospitalized with third-degree burns. He is in critical condition.

ABC’s Los Angeles affiliate KABC reported on Friday that a panhandler approached the victim walking into a 7-Eleven store and asked him for money. The victim said no.

When the victim left the store and got into his SUV, the 37-year-old transient reportedly doused him and the inside of his vehicle with a flammable substance and lit it on fire, engulfing the truck in flames with the man inside, KABC reported.

“With the door open you could see the entire insides were ablaze,” one eyewitness told Good Morning America. “He came out and he was horrifying. His entire shirt was on fire, his head was on fire.”

Authorities called the incident a random act of violence. The two men did not know each other, police said.

“It’s a horrific crime to think that somebody’s, really no motive, just sitting there, minding their own business and then to be lit on fire,” Long Beach Police Sgt. Aaron Eaton told KABC.

KABC reported the transient was arrested and will be charged with arson and attempted murder.

Police have not released the names of the two men.

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