In brief: Shooting suspect’s ex-girlfriend speaks

CENTENNIAL, Colo. – Months before James Holmes opened fire in a Colorado movie theater, his ex-girlfriend said she urged him to talk to his therapist after he mentioned having thoughts about killing people, thoughts that to her “seemed very philosophical” and not a concrete threat.

Gargi Datta also testified Thursday that during their relationship, Holmes showed no interest in guns, including when they visited an outdoor store that sold weapons. She did not know about his meticulous plans for the July 20, 2012, attack or the arsenal he assembled.

Datta and Holmes were graduate students at the University of Colorado when they began dating during their first semester in the fall of 2011. By February 2012, she did not want anything more than a casual relationship, and the two remained “friends with benefits” until Holmes told her in early April he could not continue.

They stopped talking after that, and Datta no longer saw Holmes outside the classroom.

District Attorney George Brauchler has said Holmes’ breakup with Datta was a catalyst to the shooting during a midnight premiere of a Batman movie. Datta was Holmes’ first romantic relationship, and he had told her he loved her. She told him she cared about him only as a friend.

Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the attack that killed 12 people and injured 70. Prosecutors contend Holmes was sane, and they are seeking the death penalty.

Judge sees cause for officers’ trials

CLEVELAND – A judge said Thursday enough evidence exists to charge two white policemen in the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old black boy who was holding a pellet gun, a largely symbolic ruling because he can’t compel prosecutors to charge them.

Municipal Court Judge Ronald Adrine ruled there’s probable cause to charge rookie Officer Timothy Loehmann with murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide or dereliction of duty in the November shooting death of Tamir Rice. And he ruled there’s evidence to charge Loehmann’s partner, Officer Frank Garmback, with reckless homicide or dereliction of duty.

The judge made his ruling after activists submitted affidavits asking the court to rule there’s enough evidence to charge the officers in Tamir’s death, which has spurred protests and complaints about the treatment of blacks by police.

Dust storm blamed for deadly pileup

LAMAR, Colo. – A dust storm that enveloped a highway and triggered an 11-vehicle pileup in southeastern Colorado has killed two people and injured four others.

Trooper Nate Reid said a vehicle heading north on U.S. Highway 287 near Lamar slowed because of the dust, setting off the chain-reaction crash Wednesday evening involving passenger vehicles and tractor-trailers.

Dust storms sometimes occur on Colorado’s southeastern plains. The area has been hit hard by drought in recent years, but conditions have eased after a wet spring.

Expert: Jail escape professionally done

NEW YORK – A licensed engineer who has done work at the Clinton Correctional facility in Dannemora where two killers escaped last weekend said the work of cutting through a cell wall and a steam pipe was done with a high degree of professionalism.

Larry Jeffords, owner of Jeffords Steel and Engineering in upstate New York, told the Associated Press that convicts David Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48, were either very proficient with the tools they used – or they had help.

“It tells me either they are very good at what they do, with a lot of good training. Or they had very good equipment. Or somebody else cut the hole for them,” said Jeffords, whose knowledge of the escape is only based on seeing photographs released by the media.

During the breakout, Sweat and Matt used power tools to cut through steel and bricks and crawled through an underground steam pipe, emerging from a manhole outside the 40-foot walls of the maximum-security prison about 20 miles south of the Canadian border, authorities said.

Prosecutor wants ‘Angola 3’ retrial

NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana’s attorney general is insisting on a third trial for the last of the “Angola Three,” calling the prison activist who spent decades in solitary confinement after the killing of a guard in 1972 “the most dangerous person on the planet.”

A federal judge ruled this week that Albert Woodfox must be freed immediately, saying the state has never proved – and never will – that he was responsible for the stabbing death of Brent Miller 43 years ago.

Woodfox’s long-simmering story has been the subject of documentaries, Peabody Award-winning journalism, United Nations human rights reviews and even a theatrical play. It’s a staggering tale of inconsistencies, witness recants, rigged jury pools, out-of-control prison violence, racial prejudice and political intrigue.

And none of it has brought justice to Miller’s widow, Teenie Rogers, who did her own investigating and says there’s no evidence that Woodfox is guilty.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week stayed his release while deciding whether to accept the state’s appeal.

Prison officials said Woodfox was the instigator, grabbing Miller from behind while others stabbed him. But key aspects of the crime have remained mysterious ever since Miller’s body was found in an empty prison bunkhouse.