Texas News Briefs

Double Murder-Suicide

Authorities find 3 bodies in Fort Worth double murder-suicide:

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Police have discovered three members of a north Fort Worth family dead in what they say is an apparent double murder-suicide.

Fort Worth police spokesman Lt. Paul Henderson said that the bodies of a 36-year-old middle school teacher, her 44-year-old husband and a 14-year-old daughter were discovered Wednesday evening in their home by a police officer conducting a welfare check. Irving police contacted Fort Worth police about a "missing" teacher Wednesday because she had not reported to work since Monday, Henderson told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW.

Henderson told The Associated Press on Wednesday night the teacher's absence triggered a call from her employer because "she was very prompt and it was very unlike her to miss."

He said that neighbors across the street from the 4500 block of Birchbend Lane said they heard the couple fighting around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Texas Execution

Honduran man set to die Thursday for 2001 robbery-murder in Texas:

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Attorneys for an illegal immigrant from Honduras say his inability to get legal help from his government following his arrest for killing a Dallas-area store manager during a robbery should keep from a scheduled trip to the Texas death chamber.

Lawyers said Heliberto Chi, who was set to die Thursday evening, was denied rights given to foreigners under international treaty.

It's the second death penalty case this week in the nation's most active capital punishment state to focus on diplomatic issues.

On Tuesday night, after a split U.S. Supreme Court narrowly rejected a late appeal, Mexican-born convicted killer Jose Medellin was executed for participating in a gruesome gang rape and murders of two teenage Houston girls 15 years ago.

Unlike Medellin, Chi was not among some 50 death row inmates around the country, all Mexican born, who the International Court of Justice said should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether the 1963 Vienna Convention treaty was violated during their arrests. Mexico had sued in the court on behalf of its citizens condemned in the U.S.

President Bush asked states to review the cases and legislation to implement the process was introduced recently in Congress, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year neither the president nor the international court could force Texas to wait.

Chi's attorneys argued that unlike its treaty obligations with Mexico, the U.S. agreement with Honduras doesn't require enabling legislation.

Abducted Children

Report: Woman accused of kidnapping 5 children plans to surrender:

HOUSTON (AP) - A woman accused of kidnapping five children said she did so because their biological mother had threatened her life but now says she plans to surrender to police, a newspaper reported.

Houston authorities issued an Amber Alert on Wednesday in connection to the abduction of the Houston children. The Harris County District Attorney's office charged Rhonda Tavey, 44, with five counts of kidnapping. Tavey said she planned to surrender to authorities on Thursday but no additional details were provided about when she would do so.

Tavey, who is white, said all she ever wanted was to do God's will and that she also took the children, who are black, for their own safety. She said their mother, Erica Alphonse, was "abusive."

Tavey said last month she found her bank statements in the purse of Alphonse, whom she had opened her home to after the Louisiana family was devastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

"When I confronted her with that, she pulled a knife and threatened to kill me. That's when I made arrangements to get the kids out," Tavey said Thursday in an online edition of the Houston Chronicle.

The newspaper reported that Alphonse denies pulling a knife on Tavey and said Tavey is lying to damage Alphonse's reputation.

"I wouldn't have thought in a million years she'd have done this to me," Alphonse said Wednesday night from her aunt's Southwest Houston apartment.

Osteen's Wife-Lawsuit

Trial to begin in lawsuit where flight attendant accuses Joel Osteen's wife of assault:

HOUSTON (AP) - As one of the leaders of Houston's popular Lakewood Church, Victoria Osteen, wife of nationally renown pastor Joel Osteen, is known for her charity and Christianity.

But a Continental Airlines flight attendant is accusing the co-pastor of one of the nation's most prominent megachurches of committing some very unchristian-like behavior.

Opening arguments were set for Thursday in a civil lawsuit that accuses Victoria Osteen of assaulting flight attendant Sharon Brown before the start of a 2005 flight from Houston to Vail, Colo.

Brown alleges in her suit that Victoria Osteen threw her against a bathroom door and elbowed her in the left breast during an angry outburst over a stain on her first-class seat.

Victoria Osteen "clearly was angry on this flight," said Brown's attorney, Reginald McKamie.

Brown wants an apology and punitive damages amounting to 10 percent of Victoria Osteen's net worth as part of her suit.

But Victoria Osteen's lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said his client didn't assault Brown.

"This is a very silly case," Hardin said.

The Osteens were expected to testify during the trial.

The jury of seven men and five women was chosen on Wednesday after a couple of hours of questioning of a jury pool of 130 people. The questioning touched on religious beliefs, celebrity and the public's perception of preachers and televangelists.

Many of those in the jury pool said they had been to Lakewood Church and admitted to holding the Osteens in high regard and being star-struck by them.