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Big Sean headlined the Homecoming concert at the Siegel Center last Friday alongside Kendrick Lamar and Outasight.

Local & VCU National & International

New DNA test could exonerate man convicted of 1978 rape

Investigators knocked on Bennett S. Barbour’s door on Valentine’s Day 1978 and arrested him on a charge of raping a College of William and Mary student at gunpoint a week earlier.

Now, the state has proof that he is innocent.

Tests conducted in 2010 on material from Barbour’s old case file as part of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science’s post-conviction DNA project identified the DNA of a known offender in biological evidence taken from the scene and failed to find Barbour’s DNA.

The DNA report has been in the hands of authorities for 18 months, but Barbour learned about his ticket to exoneration only two weeks ago.

Matthew Engle, legal director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law, plans to petition the Virginia Supreme Court for a writ of actual innocence on Barbour’s behalf.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Man sentenced in wreck that killed Richmond nun

Carlos Martinelly Montano’s history of drunken driving, driving without a license, previous jail time and a catastrophic fatal collision in 2010 overwhelmed Friday his self-described reformation and sorrow over the death of a beloved Richmond nun from the head-on crash.

A Prince William County judge sentenced the illegal immigrant from Bolivia to two 20-year active terms on a range of charges, including felony murder, involuntary manslaughter, malicious wounding and a third-offense DUI, ordering that the two sentences run concurrently.

The sentence means that Martinelly, 24, likely will serve 20 years, even if his appeal of the felony murder conviction is successful, his lawyer, Michael Arif, said after the hearing Friday.

Arif said he will appeal the conviction for felony murder because it represents a matter of double jeopardy.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Bill would clarify earthquake insurance coverage

After the initial shock of last year’s magnitude-5.8 earthquake wore off, hundreds of Louisa County residents whose homes were damaged called their insurance companies, assuming that their crumbled chimneys and cracked walls were covered.

Almost all of them were wrong.

At the end of January, 5,976 Virginia homeowners from nine localities had reported damage to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Of those, only 344 – less than 6 percent – had either a homeowner’s policy with an earthquake rider or a separate earthquake policy.

Should another earthquake strike, Gov. Bob McDonnell wants to make sure Virginia homeowners know if they are covered.

Legislation before the General Assembly, introduced on the governor’s behalf, would require insurance companies to notify homeowners who have not purchased earthquake coverage.

Home and business damage from the earthquake, centered in Louisa southwest of Mineral, is estimated to be well in excess of $20 million. As of Friday, federal authorities had disbursed $10.6 million in relief to Virginians who sustained property damage in the quake.

An additional $3.2 million will go to the Louisa County School Board to help pay to replace quake-damaged Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, FEMA announced Friday.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Police clear tents from Occupy D.C. site

Dozens of U.S. Park Police officers in riot gear and on horseback converged before dawn Saturday on one of the nation’s last remaining Occupy sites, with police clearing away tents they said were banned under park rules.

At least seven people were arrested. Officials said it was relatively peaceful but got tense late in the day when an officer was hit in the face with a brick as police pushed protesters out of the last section of McPherson Square. The officer was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Protesters held a general assembly Saturday evening and vowed to continue the movement. One of the speakers acknowledged the injured officer and urged everyone to practice nonviolence.

Police insisted they were not evicting the protesters. Those whose tents conformed to regulations were allowed to stay, and protesters can stay 24 hours a day as long as they don’t camp there with blankets or other bedding. Police threatened to seize tents that broke the rules and arrest the owners.

By Saturday afternoon, seven were arrested, including four who refused to move from beneath a statue and three who crossed a police line.

Brief by the Associated Press

Russia, China veto UN resolution on Syria

The U.N. Security Council failed again Saturday to take decisive action to stop the escalating violence in Syria as Russia and China blocked a resolution backing an Arab League plan that calls for President Bashar Assad to step down. The double-veto outraged the U.S. and European council members who feared it would embolden the Assad regime.

In an unusual weekend session, 13 members of the council, including the United States, Britain and France, voted in favor of the resolution aimed at stopping the brutal crackdown in Syria that has killed thousands of people since anti-government protests erupted a year ago.

It was the second time in four months that Russia and China used their veto power to block a Security Council resolution condemning the violence in Syria. Damascus has been a key Russian ally since Soviet times and Moscow has opposed any U.N. call that could be interpreted as advocating military intervention or regime change.

Brief by the Associated Press

Fidel Castro presents two-volume memoir

Fidel Castro spent six hours presenting a two-volume memoir to an audience at a Havana convention center, state media said Saturday. It was a rare appearance for the retired and increasingly reclusive former Cuban leader.

Images on state television showed a smiling, animated Castro wearing a dark track suit over a blue plaid button-up shirt. Audio of him speaking was not broadcast, but Communist Party newspaper Granma said he told attendees Friday that they would hear about “two books that you haven’t had any news of.”

Granma said the two-tome memoir, “Guerrilla of Time,” fills nearly 1,000 pages and covers Castro’s life from childhood until December 1958, the eve of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. It is based on interviews with journalist Katiuska Blanco.

Castro, 85, stepped aside provisionally in 2006 due to a lifethreatening illness and retired permanently two years later, clearing the way for his younger brother and long-designated successor Raul to take over.

Brief by the Associated Press

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VCU students take on campus safety issues • 4

Nearly 300 security officers become state-certified • 5