Aug 29, 2024

We have a handful of crime and court items today, beginning with an update on the 2020 killings of seven people in a house in Morgan County.

Thanks for reading,

Ike Morgan

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A guilty verdict has come down in the shooting that killed seven people in a Morgan County house in June 2020, reports AL.com's William Thornton.

The jury found Frederic Rogers guilty of three counts of capital murder, meaning he is eligible to receive the death penalty.

Investigators have said they believe Rogers and another man, who has yet to stand trial, killed the seven people over a dispute among members of a motorcycle club. It's believed two of the victims were members of the Seven Deadly Sins motorcycle club, which had been organized by the suspects.

The victims included four men and three women ranging in ages from 45-17.

A federal appeals court declined to consider a preliminary injunction regarding Alabama's law banning puberty blockers and hormone therapy as transgender care for children, reports AL.com's Howard Koplowitz.

The Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act makes it a Class C felony for doctors to use puberty blockers, hormones or surgery as transgender therapies, with exceptions for "medically verifiable disorders of sex development."

Class C felonies are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The bill -- and others like it -- is still being challenged in courts on its merits. This week's non-action by the appeals court affirmed the lifting of a district court's injunction and allows the state to continue enforcing the law.

Five men from Bessemer were charged in the case we mentioned yesterday in which illegal gambling machines that had been shut down in Selma showed up in the back room of a Lipscomb bingo hall with "evidence" stickers still on them, reports AL.com's Carol Robinson and Greg Garrison.

Attorneys for the Selma establishments said their clients are "shocked" and "baffled" as to how the machines were taken off their properties.

The five men are charged with third-degree burglary.

Yesterday parts of the state saw triple-digit temperatures, reports AL.com's Leigh Morgan.

The highest was in Muscle Shoals, where it reached 102 degrees. It also hit 100 in Huntsville and Montgomery. None of those are record highs, but much of the state was around 5-10 degrees above average for August 28.

And for those in South and Central Alabama who were blessed with rain yesterday: Share some of that with the rest of us today. There is a chance for storms and showers across the state today as temperatures again are expected to creep up well into the 90s.

The state has added to its preserved land at Fort Morgan by 79 acres, reported AL.com's Margaret Kates for The Press-Register digital edition.

The 79-acre purchase is undeveloped beachfront property that cost $16 million. It's located next to the Beach Club Resort & Spa.

A nearby purchase was made by the conservation department in 2018. Combined, those two total 200 acres and more than a half mile of shoreline and sand dunes.

$233,700

That's the advance U.S. Sen. Katie Britt received for her 2023 book, “God Calls Us to Do Hard Things: Lessons from the Alabama Wiregrass,” according to a financial disclosure form.

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