NATIONAL BRIEFS

MICHIGAN: Guilty of killing grandson

A grandmother was convicted Tuesday of second-degree murder for killing her teenage grandson last spring in her Detroit-area home, after jurors rejected her claim that she shot him six times in self-defense. Sandra Layne, 75, wept quietly on hearing the verdict. She was also found guilty of using a firearm during a felony and probably faces 14 years in prison for the death of Jonathan Hoffman. Hoffman's mother, Jennifer, said her mother was a "monster" who deserved to go to prison.

MINNESOTA: 3 Indian gangsters convicted

Three alleged members of a violent American Indian gang known for terrorizing the Upper Midwest were convicted Tuesday in what authorities called one of the largest gang cases to come out of Indian Country. An alleged leader of the Native Mob, Wakinyon Wakan McArthur, 34, was found guilty on several charges including racketeering conspiracy. He was acquitted on an attempted murder charge that stemmed from a shooting that prosecutors said McArthur ordered. Alleged gang "soldiers" Anthony Francis Cree, 26, and William Earl Morris, 25 were convicted of attempted murder in aid of racketeering and other charges.

PENNSYLVANIA: Testimony of illegal abortions

A medical assistant told a jury Tuesday that she snipped the spines of 10 babies in unorthodox abortions at a West Philadelphia clinic, at the owner's direction. She said Dr. Kermit Gosnell and another employee did the same to terminate pregnancies. Adrienne Moton testified in the capital murder trial of Gosnell, who is on trial in the deaths of a patient and seven babies. Prosecutors accuse him of killing late-term, viable babies after they were delivered alive, violating state abortion laws.