Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter sentenced nine educators to punishment that ranged from a high of seven years in prison to the lightest sentence of one-year home confinement. The sentencing came after a jury convicted the educators — one of them was acquitted — on April 14 of charges related to inflating and changing the test scores of children in schools across the city. It was the largest test cheating scandal in American history.
Four Years After Beheading Man With Guitar String
James Paul Harris of Kansas was sentenced to four years and two months in prison for beheading another man with a guitar string after a plea deal that prosecutors said they accepted because of problems with the case, according to Fox News. Harris originally was charged with first-degree murder in the 2011 death of James Gerety but pleaded no contest in December to involuntary manslaughter. A former girlfriend testified that Harris told her he shot Gerety in the stomach, tortured him for two days, then cut off his head. Prosecutors allege Harris kept Gerety’s head for months for some type of religious practice. Osage County Attorney Brandon Jones said problems with the case included “credibility issues” with a major witness.
Randall Miller
Director Gets Two Years in Prison for Death on Unauthorized Film Set
Following the death of camera assistant Sarah Jones on the Georgia set of the Gregg Allman biopic Midnight Rider, director Randall Miller and the film’s primary producers were charged with involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass stemming from Jones being struck by a train during the unauthorized shoot. Miller had initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, but in a surprising turn of events, the director changed his plea to guilty. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the director accepted a 10-year sentence in February 2014 that includes two years in a Wayne County prison followed by eight years’ probation, during which time he will be barred from being in charge of a film crew. Another provision of the deal was that Miller’s wife Jody Savin, who co-produced Midnight Rider, would have all charges against her dismissed.
