Sentencing in an Indy explosion case, Mike Pence signs paperwork to have electoral college delegates cast their votes for him for VP
– One of five people charged in a deadly house explosion that devastated an Indianapolis neighborhood has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit arson. Forty-five-year-old Gary Thompson was sentenced Friday to 30 years, with 10 years suspended, and two years of probation under a plea agreement. The November 2012 natural gas explosion killed a couple and damaged or destroyed more than 80 homes.
— An Indiana woman is charged with attempted murder after telling police she injected fecal matter into her son’s IV tube while he was hospitalized for leukemia. The new charge was filed Friday against 41-year-old Tiffany Alberts of Wolcott. Court documents say staff at Indianapolis’ Riley Hospital for Children contacted police after the 15-year-old boy developed several infections and a nurse observed Alberts injecting his IV bag with an unknown substance.
— Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson says the state set a record with 33 percent of voters in the Nov. 8 general election casting their ballots early. Lawson said Friday this year’s mark compares with 24 percent in 2008 and 22 percent in 2012. Lawson said the election turnout of 58 percent of voters fell short of the level of 62 percent in 2008, when President Barack Obama won his first term.
— Gov. Mike Pence has signed off on the paperwork enabling Indiana’s delegation to the electoral college to cast their votes _ for him. The Republican, who will be Donald Trump’s vice president, is the first Indiana governor since 1912 to certify electors who will later cast electoral college votes in his favor. Former Indiana Gov. Thomas R. Marshall, a Democrat, certified the state’s electors in 1912, enabling them to vote for Woodrow Wilson for president and himself as vice president.
stories from AP