WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2002
NATION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
Death penalty possible for killer
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A man was convicted of murder yesterday and could get the death penalty in the slayings of five Wendy's employees who were herded into a restaurant freezer and shot execution-style during a holdup.
The jury will begin hearing evidence today on whether John Taylor, 38, should die by injection.
Taylor's accomplice in the 2000 robbery, Craig Godineaux, 32, pleaded guilty earlier this year. Because he is mentally retarded,
he was not eligible for the death penalty. He is serving five life sentences.
Seven people in all were shot in the holdup in Queens; two of them survived.
Prosecutors said it was Taylor who plotted the murders and that he shot two of the victims himself.
Jacquoinie Johnson, 20, one of the survivors, testified in haunting detail how the massacre unfolded as the restaurant staff was closing for the night.
Defense attorney Kelley Sharkey argued Taylor was a remorseful participant in a robbery gone awry and that Godineaux was a violent criminal who "carries his IQ score around like an insurance policy."
The restaurant manager ordered everyone downstairs over an intercom, Godineaux bound and gaged everyone with duct tape, and Taylor ordered them into the walk-in freezer. There, Godineaux pulled plastic bags over their heads, and the massacre began.
Taylor and Godineaux made off with about $2,400 but were caught a day later.
Johnson testified that he was able to see out of one eye from under the plastic bag, and watched Taylor shoot one of the victims.
Johnson turned his head away as he heard two more shots fired. When he looked again, he saw Taylor hand the gun to Godineaux and tell him to "finish the job."
New York State reinstated capital punishment in 1995 and has five people on death row — none of them from New York City. No one has been executed in the state since 1963.
Businessman charged for hiring illegal aliens
The Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — A successful Palestinian-American businessman who owns T-shirt stores, gift shops and restaurants in Orlando has been jailed on charges of hiring illegal aliens.
Law enforcement agents last week raided several shops owned by Jesse Issa Maali, 57. The government said Maali, might flee the country. He is charged with hiring dozens of illegal aliens and creating shell companies to disguise payments to the workers.
A federal magistrate was expected to decide yesterday whether to allow Maali's release on bail. A two-day hearing was
delayed by a bomb threat called into the federal courthouse in the morning. Nothing was found.
The U.S. government indicted Maali and four business associates last week. They were charged with immigration violations, conspiracy to commit money laudering and conspiracy to commit violations of immigration laws.
None of the charges accuse them of terrorist ties.
Federal prosecutor Cynthia Collazo said Maali, a naturalized U.S. citizen, should remain jailed because he has money and property overseas and has provided financial support to terrorist groups.
Comet paints the sky, stargazers brave the cold
The Associated Press
Raleigh, N.C. — Amateur and professional stargazers alike were treated to a spectacular light show early yesterday as meteors blazed colorful trails across the night sky.
Most of Europe and many parts of North America were obscured by clouds, but it was clear enough at Raleigh, N.C., that Debbie Moose and her husband, Rob Vatz, saw 20 to 25 meteors in 45 minutes.
"Some were little pinpoints,
but some were really bright, like flaming golf balls," Moose said.
The celestial display was the annual appearance of the Leonid meteor shower, caused when the Earth passes through a trail of comet debris. The Leonids are named for the constellation Leo that marks the direction from which the meteors appear to arrive.
It will be nearly a century before the Leonids will produce such a big swarm of shooting stars again.
Nebraska clinic may be to blame for virus outbreak
The Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. — At least 81 people treated at a Nebraska cancer clinic have tested positive for hepatitis C in an outbreak that may have been caused by a contaminated vial of medicine, health officials said yesterday.
Dr. Tom Safranek, the state epidemiologist, said poor medical practices at Dr. Tahir Javed's clinic in Fremont may be to blame.
The patients, who were suffering from cancer or blood disorders, were treated at the clinic in 2000 and 2001. Just before it shut down last month, the clinic advised 612 patients to get tested and nearly 500 did.
It is possible that a clinic worker used a syringe to administer medicine to a patient who had hepatitis C, then drew more medicine from the same vial for the patient with the same syringe, Safranek said.
Doing that would contaminate the rest of the medicine in the vial, and infect other patients given the drug, he said.
Medical charts are being examined, and current and past employees of the clinic are being questioned by state health officials.
notified the problem in September by an Omaha doctor who had two patients with hepatitis C who also were patients at Javed's clinic.
In all, 485 people sought tests after receiving letters from the clinic. Of the others, some chose not to be tested and others may have been tested by their own doctors.
State health officials were
The state said it was not aware of any deaths among the patients with hepatitis C. Doctors said they do not know what effect the virus would have on the clinic's already ailing patients.
Hepatitis C is a viral infection of the liver and the most common blood borne infection in the United States. People who have been infected may experience fatigue, loss of appetite and yellowing of the skin. The virus can eventually lead to cirrhosis or cancer of the liver.
Health officials are confident no other patients have to be contacted because of changes made at the clinic in 2001, Safranek said, declining to elaborate.
In Oklahoma, a hepatitis C outbreak that infected more than 50 people this year was blamed on a nurse anesthetist who told health officials he reused needles and syringes.
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