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David In Indy:
From WISH Channel 8 website:
Man Admits To Murder-For-Hire
Indianapolis - A surprising confession came Thursday from a man accused of trying to hire an undercover officer to kill his wife. Robert Quarles not only confessed to the crime, but he explained why he did it. Meanwhile, police have re-opened another death investigation following Quarles' arrest.
Murder-for-hire suspect Robert Quarles made a startling confession during this jailhouse interview. When asked if he hired someone to kill his wife, he responded, "Yes, I did." When pressed for a reason, he said, "Over a period of time there was so much bickering and battering between me and her."
Metro Homicide detectives say the 56-year-old negotiated with a hit man to kill his wife, but the hit man was really undercover Lt. David Young.
"I really would not have [done] it, but mental stress. I just lost my cool," Quarles said.
SWAT officers arrested Quarles at 23rd and Keystone. His wife talked to Channel 13 in an exclusive interview. "You go from loving a man to finding out he wants to kill you. It's a hard switch," she said.
Police also say Quarles tried to poison his wife with a bottle of Visine three weeks ago. The incident put her in the emergency room with severe nausea. Investigators say Quarles told an undercover detective, who he thought was a hit-man, that he'd already tried to kill his wife himself with the Visine.
Quarles also confessed to another murder-for-hire plan. He wanted the husband of his ill daughter's caregiver dead. But after sharing thoughts of drowning his wife with detectives, they reopened the investigation of his daughter's drowning death.
Although Quarles is a person of interest in the case of his daughter's death, he denies any wrongdoing.
"Jessica's death, it was an accident," he said.
During the jailhouse interview, Quarles not only admitted to the murder for hire, but he also apologized to his estranged wife.
"Honey, I am so sorry," he said.
Quarles went back to his jail cell hoping his apology and confession eventually leads to his freedom.
David In Indy:
From WTHR Channel 13 website:
Star Fires Staffer Over Controversial Comments
Indianapolis - The local NAACP stood in protest of the Indianapolis Star, calling a blog that appeared earlier this week racially offensive.
Flanked by civic, business and religious leaders near the Martin Luther King-Robert Kennedy Peace Memorial, the NAACP demanded action be taken at the Star over a racially charged slur historically used by hate groups. The language was aimed at embattled City-County Council President Monroe Gray.
"We protest. We demand a public apology from the Indianapolis Star, not to African-American elected officials, not to the homeless, but to the community," said Rep. Bill Crawford (D-Indianapolis).
"I apologize for the remarks that are posted on our website," said Dennis Ryerson, editor and vice president of the Star. "Our standards were communicated. The person is no longer with the newspaper." Ryerson's remarks were greeted with applause.
"The apology is appropriate, but I think that with all the press that I've received from the Indianapolis Star in the past year that at least the apology could be above the fold on the front page," said Gray.
Ryerson says he takes responsibility and pledged to enact change.
We'll have much more on this story coming up on Eyewitness News at 5:00 pm. This story will be updated later.
David In Indy:
News From Indiana for November 2nd, 2007
From The Indy Channel website:
Cat Honored For Saving Indiana Family
NEW YORK -- When the Keesling family of Indiana was about to be overcome by carbon monoxide, their cat clawed at wife Cathy's hair until she woke up and called for help. When Debbie Parkhurst choked on a piece of apple at her Maryland home, her dog jumped in, landing hard on her chest and forcing the morsel to pop out of her throat.
For their nick-of-time acts, Toby, a 2 1/2-year-old golden retriever, and Winnie, a gray-eyed American shorthair, were named Dog and Cat of the Year by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
In addition, five humans were honored Thursday for their actions toward animals in the past year, including a Bronx firefighter who saved a dog and cat from a burning building.
Neither Parkhurst nor Keesling could explain their pets' timely heroics, though Parkhurst suggested her pooch's Heimlich maneuver might have been guided by divine intervention.
"That's what our veterinarian said," she said. "He wasn't making a joke; he's very spiritual, and now I have to agree with him."
Both pets were themselves rescued in infancy -- Toby as a 4-week-old puppy tossed into a garbage bin to die, and Winnie as a week-old orphan hiding under a barn, so helpless that Keesling's husband, Eric, had to feed her milk with an eyedropper.
As the Keeslings recalled it, a gas-driven pump being used to remove flood waters from their basement in New Castle, Ind., last March malfunctioned, spreading carbon monoxide through the house. By the time Winnie moved into rescue mode, the couple's 14-year-old son, Michael, was already unconscious.
"Winnie jumped on the bed and was clawing at me, with a kind of angry meow," Cathy Keesling said. "When I woke up I felt like a T-bar had hit me across the head."
State police and sheriff's officers responding to her 911 call said the family was only minutes from death, judging by the amount of poisonous gas in the house.
Debbie Parkhurst's husband, Kevin, was at his job at a Wilmington, Del., chemical firm when she took a midday break from making jewelry and bit into an apple.
"Normally I peel them, but I read in Good Housekeeping magazine that the skin has all the nutrients, so I ate the skin, and that's what caused me to choke," she recalled.
"I couldn't breathe and I was in panic when Toby jumped on me. He never does that, but he did, and saved my life."
Both Toby and Winnie accompanied their owners to the awards luncheon at Manhattan's posh Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
David In Indy:
From The Indy Channel Website:
NFL "Circus" Rolling Into Indianapolis
Indianapolis -The New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts are entering a historical meeting Sunday. For the first time in NFL history, two teams with records of 7-0 or better will meet when the 7-0 Colts host the 8-0 Patriots.
And the defending Super Bowl champions are prepared for the hype.
"It will be a circus," Indianapolis head coach Tony Dungy said.
The Patriots' three-ring act of head coach Bill Belichick, quarterback Tom Brady and wide receiver Randy Moss bring their big-top show into Indy. After starting the year amid a cheating scandal, Belichick has led the Pats to blow-out wins, out-scoring league foes 331-127. Brady has been rolling under center, throwing an NFL-best 30 touchdowns in the first eight games. And Moss, who joined the Pats in the off-season, has been Brady's main target, grabbing 11 touchdown catches.
The Colts will counter New England's attack with their own offensive arsenal. Peyton Manning, who's trying for his 100th career victory Sunday, has completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 13 touchdowns and three interceptions through seven games. His air attack has been aided by the team's ground game, as Joseph Addai leads the league in rushing touchdowns with seven.
Entering Sunday's game, the Brady-led Patriots hold a 6-3 advantage over Manning's Colts, but Indianapolis has won the past three meetings.
David In Indy:
From The Indy Channel Website:
Thousands of Hoosiers To Get License Warning From The BMV
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Bureau of Motor Vehicles said it will soon inform about 200,000 Indiana residents that they're close to having their driver's licenses revoked because of data discrepancies.
A recent round of security checks found that BMV data on those people -- about 3 percent of Indiana drivers and state identification holders -- clashed with other government data on the same people, the agency said.
The mismatches could involve names, Social Security numbers, birthdays or genders. In letters that the BMV will send starting next week, the 200,000 will be asked to contact the BMV by mail, online or come to a branch in person.
Commissioner Ron Stiver said it is hard to predict how many of the discrepancies will be easy to fix and how many will be difficult.
"It's difficult to tell why a record doesn't match," Stiver said. "In some cases, it may be … my wife and I got married and she updated her name in one place, but not the other. In some cases, it may be a number transposed."
The discrepancies were discovered as part of intensified security checks involving the Social Security Administration.
Some people will have to go through the Social Security Administration and the BMV to sync their records. Anyone who fails to fix the errors will get a second letter, and if they don't respond, their driver's licenses or ID cards will be revoked after two months, the BMV said.
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