A West Virginia father and convicted murderer is accused of fatally stabbing his fiancee and her mother in his home, then burning the property and taking his 15-month-old daughter to a friend’s house before he went on the run, prompting an Amber Alert that led to his arrest and the baby being found unharmed.

Joshua Russell Morrow, 42, faces murder charges in the deaths of his girlfriend, Britney Brown, 34, and her mother, Irma Brown, 57. He also faces a charge of first-degree arson, according to West Virginia State Police.

A woman handcuffed her daughter for hours before the girl managed to flee to a neighbor’s home, according to cops in Charleston, West Virginia.

Laura Southworth, 54, is charged with child neglect resulting in injury, child neglect creating risk of injury, and unlawful restraint.

On Monday, officers with the Charleston Police Department were dispatched to an address on Bridge Road regarding a girl showing up at a home and describing herself as abused, according to documents obtained by Law&Crime. The initial report mentioned that she also had handcuffs on her wrist.

Cops arrived to indeed find that the child had handcuffs on her wrist, documents stated.

More Law&Crime coverage: Mother, 2 others sicced ‘vicious’ pit bull on her handcuffed 6-year-old boy as form of ‘corporal punishment,’ cops say

“According to her, her mom, later identified as Laura Southworth, had put the handcuffs on her wrist because she was stealing from her brothers,” police said. “She was then able to slip the handcuff off of her right wrist but was unable to slip the one off her left wrist.”

A member of the Pagan Motorcycle Club in West Virginia was convicted of orchestrating the murder of a man who had been having an affair with the mother of his child.

John Lee Wolfe was found guilty of orchestrating the murder of Henry Silver, 29. He was found guilty on Friday of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit a felony, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, West Virginia MetroNews reported. Four others face charges in the killing.

The murder happened in the apartment complex parking lot of Wolfe’s girlfriend on Sept. 9, 2022, in Carolina, West Virginia.

A neighbor told local CBS affiliate WDTV that there was arguing outside, someone was pacing, and a truck pulled up.

“And all of a sudden, we’re with our kids in the bedroom, and then we heard pops which we thought were fireworks, and we looked out the window, and there was somebody standing out here with somebody who was shot on the pavement,” the neighbor told the station.

Wolfe was arrested on Oct. 20, 2022.

Citing court documents, The Times West Virginian reported Marion County Assistant Prosecutor Sean Murphy wrote that the murder was carried out through the “Pagan’s brotherhood and creed.” He said the gang views girlfriends and spouses as “property” and affairs as “property theft.”

“As the saying goes, play stupid games-win stupid prizes,” the prosecutor wrote, the news outlet reported. “These men shall reap what they sow with their beliefs and conduct.”

After Wolfe learned about the affair, he talked with the local club chapter president about “the need to do something to put a stop to it eventually, teach Henry a lesson and get rid of Doe,” Murphy wrote, The Times West Virginian reported, Doe being the alias for Wolfe’s girlfriend.

“Quite clearly this was club business,” the prosecutor wrote, the paper reported. “Quite clearly this was organized murder conducted by a group of men who operate in a manner which is in keeping with the rules, regulations and modus operandi of a paramilitary domestic terrorist organization.”

Wolfe’s defense attorneys, Scott Alan Shough and John Colton Rogers, tried to argue against allowing the Pagan evidence into the case, the paper said.

“Mr. Silver was having an affair with his significant other,” Rogers wrote, the paper reported. “Got into a verbal confrontation with Mr. Silver prior to the shooting, called a group of individuals to murder Mr. Silver on his behalf … and is also a Pagan!”

Silver’s family mourned the loss of the father of seven. His sister said on a GoFundMe page that the Pennsylvania “father, brother, son and best friend” was amazing.

“He had his whole life left to live and he was stolen from us at only 29 years old,” she wrote.

His obituary said he was an arborist who enjoyed playing guitar, riding all-terrain vehicles, fishing, art and hanging with family and friends.

“I miss that boy. He was my firstborn son,” his father told the WDTV. “He was 29 years old, and they took him from us.”

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Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether to stay EPA’s ‘good neighbor’ rule

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 22, 2023, 9:22 am CST

The U.S. Supreme Court will have oral arguments in February to consider an emergency petition to stay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “good neighbor” rule, which is intended to curb pollution that drifts to downwind states.

The high court agreed Wednesday to consider a stay in four consolidated cases brought by energy companies, trade groups and the states of Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, the New York Times reports.

Other publications with coverage include SCOTUSblog, Law.com and the Washington Post.

“The court’s brief order did not suspend the program in the meantime or add the case to the court’s merits docket,” the New York Times reports. “Oral arguments in cases that reach the court by way of an emergency application, as in this case, are quite rare.”

Steve Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, has said since 1971, the Supreme Court has had oral arguments on emergency applications only twice before, according to Law.com. Both cases involved challenges to the Biden administration’s COVID-19 policies, Vladeck said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Supreme Court’s order allows the EPA case to also continue in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where opening briefs are due Jan. 26, SCOTUSblog reports. The appeals court had refused to stay the plan while it considers the challenge.

The rule required states to curb smog-causing nitrogen oxide that affects other states. Twenty-three states failed to persuade the EPA that its plans were adequate. In the litigation that followed, all seven federal appeals courts hearing challenges blocked the EPA action in 12 of those states, according to the New York Times.

Ohio has argued that mandated cuts “are potentially unachievable” and could leave the state with insufficient electrical generating capacity, according to the Washington Post.

The United States argues that imposing a stay “would impose negative health consequences and additional regulatory burdens on downwind states and their citizens—thus violating the central aim of the good neighbor provision.”

The cases are Ohio v. EPA, Kinder Morgan v. EPA, American Forest & Paper Association v. EPA and U.S. Steel Corp. v. EPA.