Across Georgia

Couple hopes YouTube of break-in will nab robbers

ATLANTA - A couple has posted video on YouTube of a robbery at their home, hoping someone recognizes who broke into their house, threw furniture at a dog and stole a laptop.

Dan and Alyssa Kopp's bungalow in Atlanta has been robbed twice in 10 months, and both break-ins were captured on surveillance video. When they were hit in October, they posted the images on the online video-sharing Web site and the suspects were captured.

They are hoping for the same outcome after last weekend's incident.

The video shows a black SUV pulling up to the home and a crew of four emerging, jumping the fence and running up to the back door. One individual kicks the door in and the crew enters the house.

They throw a bar stool at the Kopps' dog and leave with a laptop, the same one thieves stole last year.

Atlanta bus hijack suspect denied bond at hearing

ATLANTA - A man who police say hijacked an Atlanta public school bus with about a dozen students aboard has been denied bond at a jailhouse hearing.

Arris Pitmon has been charged with 13 counts of false imprisonment, 13 counts of reckless conduct, four counts of battery and one count of theft by taking an automobile after Thursday's bizarre incident. A student and the bus driver had only minor injuries.

Investigators believe Pitmon, who is 23, was on cocaine at the time of the incident. Police say a shirtless Pitmon jumped on the bus near a gas station, overpowered the driver and then let the bus careen off the roadway and through a fence.

Pitmon's appointed attorney, Stanley Constant, did not immediately return a call for comment Monday. Pitmon's next court appearance is set for Sept. 14.

Suspect arrested in crash of SUV into Ga. home

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. - Authorities have arrested the man they say drove an SUV that crashed through a Douglasville home.

District Attorney David McDade said Monday that the driver, 47-year-old William Steward, was hospitalized with injuries received Saturday night when his SUV crashed through a house, killing 60-year-old George Michael Bryant and injuring family members gathered after a birthday celebration.

McDade's office says Steward was arrested and he faces a court hearing Tuesday at 10 a.m. McDade says he plans to bring charges of vehicular homicide against the driver.

Authorities say Steward's SUV slammed into mailboxes and bushes and hit a parked vehicle before barreling into a home that sits about 50 feet off the road.

Ga. immigrant school leader sentenced to prison

ATLANTA - A Korean-American has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison after he admitted to bringing immigrants into the country under the guise of attending an English language school.

Songwoo Shim of Lawrenceville was sentenced Monday in an Atlanta federal court after pleading guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. He will serve three years and 10 months in prison and forfeit $24,000 seized during the case.

The 47-year-old Shim and 36-year-old In Young Park of Duluth were indicted in April.

Federal prosecutors say Shim and others fraudulently obtained certification for Humana Language Learning Center in Duluth, got student visas for hundreds of immigrants who paid thousands of dollars in purported tuition. Most never attended class.

Ex-Morehouse student sentenced to life in prison

JONESBORO, Ga. - A former Morehouse College student has been sentenced to life in prison for the killing of a classmate.

Clayton County Superior Court Judge Deborah Bennefield sentenced Miles Allen to two life sentences plus seven years in prison on Monday in the 2006 killing of Carlnell Walker.

A jury on Friday convicted Allen on 11 of 12 counts including murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping.

Allen is one of four men charged in the killing, which prosecutors say involved eight hours of torture. The jury found that Allen stomped, beat, stabbed and doused Walker with gasoline before dumping him in a car trunk outside Walker's home in Riverdale.

The three other men are expected to be tried in the next few weeks.