Argument

A local man pleaded guilty Monday to murdering a female friend earlier this year. Harlan Praul admitted in court he beat Christine Freeman unconscious last June. It happened at a home on East Haney Street. Praul told police they were dating and had gotten into an argument. Freeman died about a month later. Praul will be sentenced next month.

SOUTH BEND — Police say a domestic dispute Sunday led to the discovery of a marijuana growing operation, as well as a large bag of cocaine. Police initially were called to the home in the 600 block of North Johnson Street after a woman and man living in the home got into a verbal argument. Officers arrived to break the argument up, but the woman told police that the 24-year-old man, who rented a room in her home, had drugs in his room. Police say the man allowed officers into his room, where they reported finding potted marijuana plants and under grow lights, and a bag of cocaine sitting on a table.

New information has been released about a stabbing early Saturday morning on the west side of Warsaw. Deputies and emergency personnel responded to the 1900 block of Robin Drive at 12:49 a.m. after receiving a 911 call. Deputies found Cody Joseph Thomas Slone, 18, lying in the street and bleeding profusely.  Slone was taken to Kosciusko Community Hospital. He was then transferred to Lutheran Hospital, Fort Wayne, in critical condition. As of Monday he was listed in stable condition.

SOUTH BEND — A 40-year-old man told police he was attacked with a butcher knife by one of his neighbors Tuesday afternoon. Police were called to Courtyard Place Apartments, corner of Jefferson and South 25th Street, about 2 p.m. after the fight broke out in the apartment of a 47-year-old woman. The 40-year-old man, who received three cuts on his face, said the woman just began slashing at him with the knife after the two got into an argument. Police say the man refused medical treatment, but that the woman was arrested and accused of aggravated battery.

SOUTH BEND - A mother of two intentionally rammed into the father of her children's car after an argument Monday evening with her children in the car, police said. According to police reports, officers were dispatched to the 900 block of E Calvert Street for a hit and run about 6 p.m. on Monday. When police arrived the father told them that he and the mother of his children, 23-year-old Linette Rivera, had gotten into an argument about her taking the child's motorized toy car home with her. According to the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's office, when he declined to let her do that, they began to argue and she got into her auto - with the children in the back seat - and smashed into his vehicle.

SOUTH BEND - Exactly what happened to 2-year-old Maya Escobedo on the night of Dec. 2, 2008, might never be known, but a jury determined Monday that the girl's father did not knowingly kill her. Valentin Escobedo, 25, was acquitted of murder, but found guilty of battery and child neglect following his two-week trial in St. Joseph Superior Court. Escobedo was accused of inflicting fatal injuries on 2-year-old Maya three years ago. Doctors found a 14-centimeter fracture on her skull and bleeding inside her brain when Escobedo and his wife brought Maya to Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center.

A Fulton man is facing criminal confinement and criminal recklessness charges tonight after a standoff with police, but that man is still in critical condition this evening after he suffered a gunshot wound during a standoff with police. This all happened at a home in the 300 block of West Brown Street south of Rochester. Indiana State Police say 46-year-old Nicholas Westerhoff got into an argument with his girlfriend. Police say he told her to leave and she did and then he went outside and started firing shots.

SOUTH BEND - A teenager will spend several decades in prison for the murder of a South Bend high school student. A judge Tuesday sentenced 18-year-old Damontray Lovelady to 50 years in prison. Lovelady admitted last month to shooting 16-year-old Jhaelon Johnson, a Washington High student, in the head last September. Lovelady and Johnson reportedly got into an argument on Washington Street. Police were called to the 3100 block of Washington St. September 16, 2012 after shots were fired.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A federal agency panel in Chicago will reconsider whether Indiana violated federal law when it decided to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. Solicitor General Tom Fisher on Thursday asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to overturn its June 1 ruling that found changes in the state's Medicaid plan deprived women of freedom of choice of providers. The state says the law allows it to set qualifications for providers.

The Michigan Supreme Court will hear arguments this spring in a case making headlines across the country. The American Civil Liberties Union claims Michigan’s public defender system is set up to fail. That, they say, violates an indigent defendant’s constitutional right to a fair trial. “Whatever the prosecution says goes,” said Robin Dahlberg, an ACLU attorney. The ACLU says Michigan has one of the “worst indigent defense systems in the country.” It says the state provides no oversight and no funding, leaving it up to each individual county.