Across the southeast

Officials look for links to other crimes

RICHMOND, VA. - Investigators are looking into whether two men arrested in the robbery and killings of seven people in their Richmond homes were involved in similar crimes elsewhere, a police spokeswoman said Sunday.

Ray Joseph Dandridge and Ricky Gray, both 28, were captured Saturday in Philadelphia on charges stemming from the killings of members of two families. The home of one family was set on fire and the other was ransacked.

Authorities said police found evidence linking the pair to all seven deaths. After the arrests, the investigation widened.

"There's other law enforcement agencies that are looking into any similarities with these cases," said Cynthia Price, a spokeswoman for Richmond police. "We know there was a home invasion in Chesterfield and they have been charged with that one."

Sanitation group to close more of river

MILL CREEK, N.C. - When Hurricane Ophelia bathed the North Carolina coast in drenching rain last fall, state officials closed shellfishing beds from border to border to protect consumers from bacteria that had been washed into the water.

Once the contaminants had time to flush away, they reopened most of the waterways. But fishermen and state officials say the industry is threatened by problems more persistent than the occasional storm.

Pollution, tainted runoff and increasing silt are choking off the areas where oysters and clams can be harvested.

In the next few weeks, the Shellfish Sanitation Section of the state Division of Environmental Health plans to permanently close about 103 acres of the Newport River that never reopened after Ophelia.

It will bring the total closed shellfish acreage of the Newport River to 2,796, or 33 percent of the stream.

Panel to study teens sentenced as adults

RALEIGH, N.C. - They can't vote or join the military. But in North Carolina, 16-year-olds are treated as adults in criminal matters - even earning a life sentence if the crime is serious enough.

North Carolina is one of three states that automatically treats 16-year-olds as adults in criminal cases. Now a commission is studying whether it should join the majority of states, which set the minimum age at 17 or 18.

The state Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission will spend at least a year studying ramifications of the law, such as the number of teens with adult convictions who commit more crimes, versus those who receive juvenile status.

"The underlying theme is are we doing what is most appropriate for that age group - 16 to 21 - in terms of programs, in terms of the law," said Susan Katzenelson, the executive director of the panel.

The commission subcommittee studying the issue is scheduled to meet Friday.

State law also requires defendants as young as 13 to be considered adults in first-degree murder cases. Juvenile court judges can rule that those aged 14 and 15 be tried as adults for violent crimes such as rape or robbery.