Man dies in Norristown stabbing

Man killed in Norristown

A 43-year-old man died early Tuesday after being found stabbed in an alley in Norristown, police said.

Just after 12:15 a.m., police responded to a report of a man down in the 600 block of Jamison Alley, where they found Christopher Thomas. He was taken to Einstein Medical Center and pronounced dead.

Anyone with information about the homicide can call Norristown police at 610-270-0977 or Montgomery County detectives at 610-278-3368. - Robert Moran

Testimony to begin in slaying of two women

Testimony will begin Wednesday in the Common Pleas Court trial of a South Jersey man incriminated through DNA in the 1989 rapes and stranglings of two women in North Philadelphia.

On Tuesday, prosecution and defense lawyers finished picking a jury of 12 and four alternates to hear the case against Rudolph Churchill, 54, of Paulsboro. Churchill is charged with rape and murder in the March 17, 1989, death of Ruby Ellis, 19, who was found in an abandoned car in a lot at 15th and Thompson streets, and in the April 23, 1989, slaying of Cheryl Hanible, 33, whose body was found inside an abandoned bar in the 1200 block of West Girard Avenue.

Churchill was arrested in 2014 after a DNA sample taken while doing a three-year sentence for burglary in DeKalb County, Ga., allegedly matched samples from the 1989 slayings. - Joseph A. Slobodzian

83-year-old woman's death ruled a suicide

The death of an 83-year-old woman found in her East Germantown home last week with a gunshot wound to her chest has been ruled a suicide, homicide detectives said Tuesday.

Mary Morton shot herself in her home on the 400 block of East Cosgrove Street about 12:50 p.m. Thursday. She was pronounced dead at Einstein Medical Center shortly afterward.

Police initially thought Morton had been shot twice in her chest. But the Medical Examiner's Office determined that Morton had another "hole in her body due to cancer treatment," a police spokesman said.

Morton lived in her home with her husband. At the time of the shooting, he was downstairs visiting with the couple's two daughters, a relative said last week. - Julie Shaw

Woman found with throat slashed

Police were looking for the assailant who slashed a woman's throat overnight in Kensington.

Officers called to Frankford Avenue and Stella Street about 3 a.m. Tuesday found the woman bleeding profusely from her throat.

Chief Inspector Scott Small told reporters that the woman who is about 40, suffered a foot-long slash across her neck. She was taken to Temple University Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition.

Few details about the assault were known - it was not clear whether the crime occurred where she was found, and police had no motive or suspects. - Emily Babay

Phila. woman charged with stealing benefits

A Philadelphia woman was charged Tuesday with stealing more than $102,000 in Social Security benefits automatically deposited in her dead grandmother's bank account.

A federal grand jury found that Martha Stanley, 47, took her grandmother's payments for nearly nine years after her death. She was charged with wire fraud, Social Security fraud, and related crimes.

Stanley had lived with her grandmother, identified in the indictment as "M.S.," until she died in June 2005. She did not notify Social Security about the death, so checks continued to be deposited in the grandmother's Citizens Bank account. That lasted until March 2014. During that time, Stanley had access to the funds and spent them on herself, according to the grand jury. - Staff report

Hearing set on media access to Frein video

A hearing will be held Thursday on whether the news media and public can view a recorded interview of Eric Frein, charged with the ambush killing of a Pennsylvania state trooper and the wounding of another. Frein is charged with first-degree murder.

At a proceeding Tuesday on the defense requests to waive the death penalty for Frein, 32, of Barrett Township, Monroe County, and suppress statements he made to police, Pike County Court Judge Gregory Chelak decided that the video be shown "in camera," or out of public view.

After he announced the decision, a reporter objected in open court, and others filed objections later, the Pocono Record reported. - AP