Nation Briefs: Toxic mushrooms kill third person at Calif. senior care facility

LOOMIS — A third person has died from eating poisonous mushrooms at a California senior care facility where a caretaker found the fungus in the backyard and used it to make soup, authorities said Wednesday.

The 90-year-old man died Saturday, state Department of Social Services spokesman Oscar Ramirez told The Associated Press. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office identified him as Frank Warren Blodgett.

Three other people were sickened when they ate soup made from the toxic mushrooms on Nov. 8, including the caretaker who made it. Their conditions have not been made public.

The other people who died were identified as Barbara Lopes, 86, and Teresa Olesniewicz, 73.

NEW YORK

Police arrest suspect in shopkeepers’ deaths

NEW YORK — A low-end clothing salesman was arrested Wednesday in the serial killings of three shopkeepers, police said.

Salvatore Perrone of Staten Island faces murder charges in the fatal shootings in Brooklyn, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Police recovered a bag containing a sawed-off rifle believed to have been used in the killings. They said the balding Mr. Perrone, 63, appeared on surveillance footage carrying the bag moments after the most recent shooting Friday.

The other killings happened in July and August. All three shopkeepers were men alone in stores that had no video cameras.

NORTH DAKOTA

Surgeon acquitted in drugging, rape of wife

FARGO — A jury on Wednesday acquitted a North Dakota surgeon accused of drugging his wife and raping her while she was unconscious.

Dr. Jon Norberg lowered his head and exhaled as the verdict was read in the courtroom. His brother, Doug Norberg, a lawyer who assisted the defense, started crying.

Dr. Norberg, 42, an orthopedic surgeon, could have faced up to life in prison if convicted of gross sexual imposition and reckless endangerment. The jury, which could have convicted him on lesser charges, deliberated for about four hours.

Story Continues →