By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – The Texas attorney general has filed suit against a north Texas man accused of setting up a charitable fund to build a war memorial but using the money to pay his mortgage and utility bills.
Attorney General Greg Abbott said Tuesday that Evan Walter Coleman of Mansfield created the U.S. Fallen Heroes Foundation in March and used false federal tax forms to create the impression that it was a legitimate charity.
The lawsuit says Coleman placed donation jars at businesses in the Fort Worth suburb of Kennedale, where he said he would build a memorial honoring veterans of the Iraq, Afghan and Gulf wars. Abbott's office said it investigated after veterans expressed concerns.
A phone listing for Coleman was disconnected.
Tyler landlord, tenant dead after shootings
Tyler police say gunfire blamed on a tenant killed a landlord at a residence and the renter died later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Officer Don Martin says the suspect, 47-year-old Alice Aguilar, died Wednesday at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler.
Police on Tuesday afternoon received a call of shots fired at a multi-apartment residence and discovered the body of 70-year-old Socorro Nunez in one unit.
Martin says Aguilar was found unconscious, with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, in another unit.
Police are investigating what led to the shootings and whether financial problems were involved.
Ex-Dallas teacher pleads guilty in child porn case
A now-former high school teacher in Dallas has pleaded guilty to three counts of receiving child pornography and one count of possession of child porn. U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks says Jon Leslie Lyons entered his plea before a federal magistrate Wednesday.
The 44-year-old Lyons has been in custody since his June arrest. An affidavit says a Dallas school district employee in May notified federal authorities after discovering possible child pornography on a school computer assigned to Lyons.
Lyons, in a later interview with agents, admitted that he also had images of nude teens on his home computer and cell phone. Lyons faces a maximum 70 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. Sentencing is Dec. 22.
He taught English at Woodrow Wilson High School.
Arizona arrest, man charged in 1984 Texas killing
DNA evidence has led to an arrest in Arizona over the stabbing death of a Fort Worth teenager more than a quarter century ago. The nude body of 18-year-old Ginger Lynn Hayden was discovered Sept. 5, 1984, in her home by her mother.
Police in Sierra Vista, Ariz., on Monday arrested 43-year-old Ryland Shane Absalon, who attended high school with Hayden and was a friend of a boy she had dated.
Absalon remained in custody on a capital murder charge, facing extradition to Texas.
Attorney Gary Udashen of Dallas, who represents Absalon, says relatives say the defendant had nothing to do with the killing.
Homicide Sgt. J.D. Thornton says Absalon was interviewed following the slaying, but denied involvement. Thornton says DNA testing on some evidence was done in 2009.