Metro Briefs

MARYLAND

BALTIMORE

Woman pleads guilty to health care fraud

Federal prosecutors say a Baltimore woman has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $237,000 from a health care benefits program.

Nicole Stepney Turner, 34, entered the plea Thursday. She will be sentenced on Feb. 18.

ANNAPOLIS

Man acquitted in woman’s shooting

A Maryland man has been acquitted of charges he tried to erase a $400 drug debt by shooting a pregnant woman.

Jerold Burks, 22, was acquitted by an Anne Arundel County jury Friday. The jury deliberated seven hours over two days before finding him not guilty of attempted murder, conspiracy and related charges.

Prosecutors said Mr. Burks shot the woman, Jodi Torok, at the request of Charles Brandon Martin, 32. They said Ms. Torok was one of Mr. Martin’s girlfriends, and he was angry she refused to have an abortion.

Ms. Torok was shot in the head in the foyer of her Crofton home in October 2008. She was paralyzed, and her fetus did not survive.

Mr. Martin’s trial is scheduled to start at the end of the month.

HAMPSTEAD

Senior Idol contest winner

A Carroll County seniors club member is headed to Maryland’s statewide Senior Idol contest.

Linda Lovering, 61, won the county’s first Senior Idol competition at the North Carroll Senior and Community Center on Friday.

Ms. Lovering beat two other contestents with a rendition of Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

The statewide competition will be held Jan. 22 at Howard County Community College in Columbia.

VIRGINIA

LEXINGTON

VMI cadet dies after training march

A Virginia Military Institute freshman has died after completing a 10-mile road march.

VMI officials said 19-year-old John Alexander Evans, of Highland, Md., collapsed in his barracks room after completing the training march with other members of his class Saturday. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital shortly after noon.

Mr. Evans was an international studies major and member of the Marine ROTC program.

The medical examiner will seek to determine what caused Mr. Evans’ death.

CHARLOTTESVILLE

500 search for missing girl

More than 500 volunteers are continuing the search for a Virginia Tech student who went missing in Charlottesville last month.

Morgan Dana Harrington, 20, was last seen Oct. 17 after she became separated from her friends at a Metallica concert.

A three-day search for Ms. Harrington began Friday with about 360 volunteers, but they turned up no new leads. On Saturday, there was a 30-minute wait for volunteers to register.

The search was organized by the Texas-based Laura Recovery Center, named for a girl who was abducted and slain when she was 12. The group hopes to have a 3-square-mile area searched by Sunday evening.

Virginia State Police have followed up on 350 tips so far. A reward for Ms. Harrington’s return is at $150,000.

RICHMOND

Va. Lottery plans New Year’s raffle

The Virginia Lottery is holding its third New Year’s Millionaire Raffle.

The raffle will produce three $1 million winners, six $25,000 winners and 300 prizes of $500.

Tickets are $20 each and will be sold until late in the evening Dec. 31 or until all 330,000 tickets are sold. The winners will be announced at 2 p.m. Jan. 1.

The Virginia Lottery says the raffle has been scaled down from the last two New Year’s holidays, when 440,000 tickets were offered and four $1 million prizes were awarded. However, the odds of winning remain the same: 1 in 110,000, provided all tickets are sold.