BOSTON — An airman from Massachusetts who died during World War II when his plane crashed in Southeast Asia has been accounted for using DNA evidence.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Monday that U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Alfred Sandini, of Marlborough, was accounted for earlier this year using dental, anthropological and DNA analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.
The agency says the 25-year-old Sandini was a radio gunner aboard a B-25C Mitchell bomber that crashed in February 1944, most likely due to enemy anti-aircraft fire in what was then known as French Indochina, and is now Vietnam.
His remains were initially buried at the American Military Cemetery in Kunming, China, before being moved to Schofield Mausoleum in Hawaii. They were disinterred last August and sent to a lab for analysis.
BOSTON — Authorities say the owner of two auto body shops has been charged with using sledgehammers and mallets to further damage cars he was repairing in order to get higher insurance payouts.
Attorney General Maura Healey announced Monday that 42-year-old Adam Haddad, of Shrewsbury, has been indicted on 42 charges, including 18 counts of insurance fraud.
Authorities say Haddad owns Accurate Collision Inc. in Worcester, and ADH Collision of Boston Inc. in Everett.
The attorney general says surveillance footage from one those locations shows him using mallets, sledgehammers, and pieces of wood to intentionally damage to five customers’ vehicles to inflate appraisal repair quotes. He would then allegedly pocket the insurance payout and not complete repairs.
Haddad said that the charges “are news to me.”
BOSTON — An Uber driver charged with raping a passenger over the weekend, including once while his vehicle was in motion, has been held on $100,000 bail.
Daudah Mayanja, of Waltham, wept at his arraignment Monday where not guilty pleas to two counts of rape were entered.
State police say a woman reported that Mayanja sexually assaulted her in his vehicle at about 1:15 a.m. Saturday on Storrow Drive.
Prosecutors say he picked up the woman at a Somerville bar and used his hand to rape her once while the car was in motion and again when he pulled over.
Mayanja’s attorney says her client denies the charges.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on Mayanja, who they say is a citizen of Uganda.
An Uber spokesman called the allegation “horrible.”
BOSTON — Lawyers for a man sentenced to life in prison in the killing of a high school classmate in 2007 are asking the state’s highest court to grant their client a new trial.
John Odgren was convicted in 2010 of murder in the stabbing death of 15-year-old James Alenson in a bathroom at Lincoln-Sudbury High School. Odgren was 16 at the time. The jury rejected Odgren’s arguments that his Asperger’s syndrome and mental issues health issues contributed to his actions.
Odgren’s attorneys are scheduled to argue Monday before the Supreme Judicial Court that jailhouse phone calls in which Odgren laughed about the case shouldn’t have been played to jurors. They want either a new trial or a reduction in sentence to manslaughter.
Prosecutors call the defense’s arguments “meritless.”
AUGUSTA, Maine — A weeklong public hearing on a much debated transmission line that would stretch through Maine to bring power to Massachusetts has begun.
WMTW-TV reports the hearing hosted by the Department of Environmental Protection began Monday at the University of Maine at Farmington.
The hearing will focus on the transmission line’s impact on the environment, and it will take place each day this week at the same time.
The transmission line would be 145 miles long and stretch through Maine’s North Woods, which is one of the state’s beloved outdoor destinations.
The state Public Utilities Commission issued a recommendation in support of the $1 billion project Friday.
PITTSFIELD — Authorities have publicly identified a man killed in a hit-and-run accident in Massachusetts over the weekend.
The Berkshire district attorney says 32-year-old Christopher Reynolds was struck by a Ford SUV in Pittsfield about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Authorities did not provide his address.
The district attorney’s office says Reynolds died of blunt-force trauma, and the light-colored SUV kept driving toward the neighboring town of Dalton.
Pittsfield police say the vehicle likely has front-end damage and are asking anyone with information to contact them
From Associated Press