Boston bombing suspect wants D.C. trial

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested on April 19, 2013, after a massive manhunt following an overnight shootout with police in suburban Watertown that left his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev -- the other man wanted in the bombings -- dead. Authorities say Tsarnaev and his brother were responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013.

On April 18, 2013, the FBI released photos and videos of two suspects and pleaded for public help in identifying them.

Tsarnaev was found on April 19, 2013, in a boat that was dry-docked in the backyard of a Watertown, Massachusetts, home. He was covered in blood from bullet wounds suffered during a manhunt that brought Boston to a standstill.

The August 2013 cover of Rolling Stone featuring Tsarnaev sparked a backlash against the magazine.

Tsarnaev stands in court, flanked by his lawyers, in this sketch from July 2013, the last time he has been seen in public.

An image posted to the social sharing website Reddit purports to show Tsarnaev being detained by law enforcement officers.

Tsarnaev was caught on a convenience store surveillance camera video that was released by the Boston Police Department.

A still from footage released by the FBI of the suspects.

Additional photos and video of the two men were released by the FBI.

A picture of Tsarnaev seen on his apparent profile on VKontakte, a Russian social network similar to Facebook.

The Boston Police Department also released this undated photograph of the suspect. See all photography related to the Boston bombings.

• Defense lawyers say it's impossible to seat an impartial jury in Massachusetts


• Prosecutors say Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother planted bombs at 2013 Boston Marathon


• Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty


• Three people died and more than 200 were wounded in the attack

(CNN) -- Lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Wednesday asked that the federal trial of the suspected Boston Marathon bomber be moved to Washington, D.C.

In a motion filed with U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, lawyers for Tsarnaev, 20, claimed that the defense team's own venue survey revealed an "overwhelming presumption of guilt" in the state, prejudgment as to the potential penalty -- the prosecution is seeking the death penalty -- and an "extraordinary high number" of potential jurors who either attended or participated in the 2013 Boston Marathon or know someone who did.

Prosecutors said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother planted bombs at the finish line of the 2013 race. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during the manhunt that paralyzed Boston in the day the blasts. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to killing four people and wounding more than 200 in the attacks.

Defense lawyers said the "publicity, tremendous local impact and galvanizing community reaction" forced a change of venue in case against Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that took 168 lives.

"The community impact here is even greater than that present in McVeigh, given that the bombings occurred at the Boston Marathon on the day thousands of Bostonians and others from the region gathered to celebrate the runners, the Red Sox, and Patriots Day, the indelible fear that friends and family could have been killed or injured, the trauma experienced by those in the region for four more days while the police sought the perpetrators, and the hundreds of thousands of Boston area residents who sheltered in place during the climactic final day of the search," the motion said. "If a change of venue was warranted in McVeigh, it is even more compelled by the facts presented here."

Defense lawyers surveyed the Southern District of New York in Manhattan and the federal court district in Washington, both of which are "reasonably close, accessible to witnesses and interested persons, and able to logistically accommodate a trial of this magnitude," the motion said. Washington would be the more favorable location, it added.

In Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts, the survey found that 57.9 % and 51.7 % of the respondents, respectively, said they believed the defendant was guilty, compared to 47.9 % and 37.4% for Manhattan and Washington. In addition, 37 % of the respondents in Boston and 35 % in Springfield believed Tsarnaev should receive the death penalty.

Defense lawyers asked the court for more time to study the issue before the November trial date.

Also on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole in Massachusetts heard arguments about whether Tsarnaev's alleged "betrayal" of the United States was an aggravating factor for seeking the death penalty against him.

A defense motion accused prosecutors of trying to use the suspect's foreign birth and immigration to imply that he was "more blameworthy, and more deserving of severe punishment" than a native-born person who commits the identical crime.

The government has said that part of Tsarnaev's motive "was to provide aid and comfort to America's enemies." Prosecutors also said that after Tsarnaev received asylum from the United States, he "enjoyed the freedoms of a United States citizen; and then betrayed his allegiance to the United States" by killing and maiming its people, according to court filing.

O'Toole agreed with the defense, saying that drawing a distinction between naturalized and natural born citizens was "highly inappropriate."

Amazon phone helps you ID and buy

Amazon's first smartphone, the Fire, is displayed during the company's launch event Wednesday in Seattle.

• Firefly is Amazon's recognition tool for the new Fire Phone


• Amazon says Firefly can identify more than 100 million items


• Users can then click to buy an item from Amazon


• Phone is designed to pull you into Amazon's growing universe of services

(CNN) -- Amazon wants you to buy its first smartphone, the Fire, which it unveiled Wednesday. But it also wants you to use that phone to buy more stuff ... from Amazon.

And one of the device's most distinctive features is designed to make it as easy as possible do just that.

It's called Firefly, and it contains image-, text- and audio-recognition technology to help you scan and identify books, songs, movies and other items. Amazon wants you to use Firefly so much that the feature has its own dedicated button on the side of the phone for one-stop shopping.

"The Firefly button lets you identify printed Web and email addresses, phone numbers, QR and bar codes, artwork, and over 100 million items, including songs, movies, TV shows, and products -- and take action in seconds," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in announcing the phone, which will run Amazon's Fire operating system.

For example, you could use the phone's cameras and sensors to identify an exotic fruit or vegetable, figure out who sings a song on the radio or help send an e-mail to a new contact after scanning their business card.

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But forget all that. Well, except for maybe the song. Once you've identified the tune, Amazon wants you to download it. From Amazon.

Bezos demonstrated the feature onstage Wednesday by using the phone to instantly identify items arrayed on a table, including a book, a CD and a jar of Nutella.

As with products like its Kindle e-readers, Kindle Fire tablets and Amazon Fire TV, the Fire Phone is designed to pull you into Amazon's growing universe of products and services and then keep you there.

So with Firefly, the Amazon Music Store will pop up as the default source to buy that song. And that's also where those QR and bar codes come in.

Firefly will make it even easier to pursue a habit that has proliferated in the smartphone age and driven brick-and-mortar stores crazy. A user will presumably be able to walk into a store, pick out a product they like, zap it with Firefly and, within a second or two, find out whether it's available on Amazon for less money. (And then maybe even order it right there from their phone.)

According to Amazon, the Firefly feature will recognize 70 million products, 35 million songs, 245,000 movies and TV episodes, and 160 live TV channels.

That's a lot of chances to spend money.

The Fire also boasts a 3-D screen. It ships July 25, although you can pre-order it now. The phone is available only on AT&T's network.

If there's one difference between the Firefly-loaded Fire Phone and other Amazon hardware, it's the price. At $199 for a 32GB model and $299 for the 64GB -- with an AT&T contract -- its cost is comparable with that of other high-end smartphones.

By comparison, the Kindle Fire tablet debuted in 2011 at $199, a full $300 less than the cheapest iPad 2 at the time. The first Kindle e-reader debuted about $400 but quickly dropped in price. There are Kindles that can now be purchased for about $70.

Under Bezos, the company's strategy has been to sell hardware for less than its competitors, sometimes even at a loss, to get customers using other Amazon products.

As such, customers who buy the Fire soon will get a free year's subscription (normally $99) to Amazon Prime, which offers two-day shipping, free streaming on Prime Instant Video and access to the Kindle book-lending library.

Whether the Fire Phone will be an instant hit remains to be seen. Shoppers may be hesitant to buy a phone online if they can't test it out in stores.

But if Amazon can carve out a decent piece of the smartphone market, which moved more than 1 billion phones last year, Firefly may help make sure those Amazon purchases just keep on coming.

Pets, owners buried together here

Under a new state regulation that will take effect August 2, pet cemeteries in New York can accept human cremains for burial.

• New York State says human remains can be buried in pet cemeteries


• State says regulation comes after "a sizeable segment" of N.Y. spoke up


• Pet owners wanted to be buried with their pets


• The regulation takes effect in early August

(CNN) -- Rhona Levy, a real estate management secretary living in the Bronx, has already decided upon her final resting place. Like many, she wants to be buried in a cemetery with her loved ones. Her loved ones just happen to be her four cats and one dog.

Levy, 65, never thought she would be able to be buried in a pet cemetery but a new regulation enacted by the New York Department of State officially permits pet cemeteries to inter the cremated remains, or "cremains," of pet owners along with their pets.

"A sizable segment of the New York community articulated a desire to be able to have their cremains buried with their pet remains," stated the formal "notice of adoption" published in the official New York State register Wednesday. "No evidence suggests that permitting this practice will harm cemeteries for human remains."

Under the regulation, effective August 2, pet cemeteries can accept human cremains for burial but cannot charge a separate fee for those remains or advertise their human-remains burial services. The state set those rules to make it clear pet cemeteries were not engaging in "the operation of a cemetery for human remains."

New York is one of a handful of states that has made formal regulations regarding human remains in pet cemeteries.

"Most states have not addressed this specifically. It's very much a state of flux right now," said Poul Lemasters, an attorney and funeral director based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Lemasters also is a consultant for the International Cemetery Cremation and Funeral Association and the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance.

Virginia currently is proposing a similar regulation allowing pet cemeteries to be added to existing human cemeteries. Additionally, Pennsylvania is one of few states that allow human bodies to be buried on pet cemeteries without having to be cremated, according to Lemasters.

The effort to formally allow human remains to be buried in New York pet cemeteries began in 2011 after NYPD officer Thomas Ryan wanted to be buried with his deceased dogs in Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in upstate Hartsdale, New York. The pet cemetery, established in 1896, had been allowing human-remains interment for decades.

"Our records indicate it was being done since early 1920s," Ed Martin Jr., the cemetery's director, said of the practice. "We were doing it all along. A couple of years ago, the New York [state] Division of Cemeteries asked us to cease the procedure to take a closer look."

Eventually the state decided in favor of people who wanted to rest eternally with their mascots.

And it was the growing demand of owners wanting to be buried with their pets that sparked government attention, said Lemasters.

"It's been going on for so many years and no one has ever said anything," said Lemasters. "It's going to happen, so why not allow it to happen and regulate it. It's just a matter of time before states start regulating this more and more."

The decision covers all pet cemeteries in New York state.

Once Levy found out about the new regulation, her mind was made up.

"My decision was set in stone right then, that I knew I would be cremated and I would be buried with my pets, my babies," she said.

For decades, Levy enjoyed their company. Her dog, Snow, and three of her cats, Putchke, Pumpkin, and Twinkie are all buried at Hartsdale.

She and another cat, Shaina, will join them one day.

"They're my children, they're my babies, I love them," she said. "When they live with you, when you raise them, they're your family."

'Shield' actor pleads not guilty to murder

Michael Jace and his wife, April, are shown at a screening of "The Shield" in March 2004 at the Zanuck Theater in Los Angeles.

• A preliminary hearing for Michael Jace is set for August 1


• The judge set bond at $2 million and ordered Jace to have no contact with his two children


• Jace wore a yellow jail jumpsuit and was handcuffed in a glass holding area for the hearing


• April Jace, 40, died from "multiple gunshot wounds," according to a coroner

Los Angeles (CNN) -- "Shield" actor Michael Jace, appearing in a Los Angeles court Wednesday, entered a not guilty plea in the slaying of his wife.

His attorney did not object when the judge set bond at $2 million and ordered Jace, 51, to have no contact with his two children.

A preliminary hearing, in which investigators are expected to testify about why they arrested Jace in the May 19 shooting death, is set for August 1.

April Jace, 40, died from "multiple gunshot wounds," according to preliminary autopsy results. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled the death a homicide, Deputy Chief Coroner Ed Winter said.

Jace, who played a Los Angeles cop in TV's "The Shield," wore a yellow jail jumpsuit and was kept handcuffed while in a glass holding area for Wednesday's hearing.

'Forrest Gump' actor charged with murder

Actor Michael Jace, right, has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of his wife, April. Jace formerly appeared on the hit FX show "The Shield." His case is the latest of many shocking crimes in the showbiz world:

In 1958, a then 14-year-old Cheryl Crane, daughter of actress Lana Turner, stabbed her mother's boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato. Crane told police Stompanato, who had ties to organized crime, had threatened her mother with a knife. Here Crane is shown with three unidentified men at the time of her trial, which resulted in a ruling of justifiable homicide.

Vladimir "Spider" Sabich was an alpine ski racer who died in March 1976 after being shot by his girlfriend, singer and actress Claudine Longet. Longet was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to 30 days in jail. She later married her defense attorney, Ron Austin, in 1986.

John Lennon -- seen here in 1969 with his wife, Yoko Ono -- was shot and killed in December 1980 outside of his apartment building in New York City by Mark David Chapman. Chapman remains jailed.

Probably one of the most famous cases ever involving a celebrity, O.J. Simpson, center, was arrested for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, in 1994. Here he confers with attorneys Johnnie Cochran, left, and Robert Shapiro, right, during a hearing in 1995. Simpson's friend Robert Kardashian stands behind him. Simpson, a former professional football player, was acquitted in the criminal case.

The murder of rapper Tupac Shakur remains unsolved. Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas in September 1996.

The death of rapper Christopher Wallace, known professionally as the Notorious B.I.G., and Biggie Smalls, has never been solved. Wallace was killed in March 1997 in Los Angeles when a gunman opened fire on his vehicle.

The marriage of "Saturday Night Law" star Phil Hartman and wife Brynn ended tragically in 1998 after she shot him to death in their bed and then took her own life.

Sean Combs, then known as "Puffy," is flanked by security and court guards as he leaves the first day of his trial in January 2001 in New York City. The rapper/producer was charged in connection with a 1999 shooting in a New York City nightclub. He was found not guilty of all of the charges.

Actor Robert Blake reacts after being found not guilty of murdering his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, in 2005 in Van Nuys, California. Bakley was shot in the head while sitting in the couple's vehicle.

Music impresario Phil Spector, left, was sentenced to 19 years to life in 2009 for the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson.

William Balfour was arrested in December 2008 and charged in the murders of the mother, brother and nephew of Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson. He was found guilty in 2012 and received three life sentences.

Tim Lambesis, lead singer of the metal band As I Lay Dying, was arrested and accused in May 2013 of seeking to have his wife killed. He was reportedly sentenced to six years.

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Shocking showbiz crimes

'Shield' actor Michael Jace charged with wife's murder

Police found April Jace shot to death in her south Los Angeles home the evening of May 19, Detective Lyman Doster said.

Michael Jace called 911 to report that his wife had been shot, Detective Dean Vinluan said, adding that he "was on the phone with the operator." Neighbors who heard gunshots also called 911, he said.

Jace's father-in-law also called 911 as he drove to his daughter's home after receiving a message from Jace about the shooting. "My son-in-law called me and texted me and said come get the kids because he shot April, our daughter," he said in a recording released by the Los Angeles Fire Department.

"At this moment, the motive of the murder is believed to be domestic violence," a police statement a day after the killing said.

Two children were in the Hyde Park-area home when their mother was shot, Vinluan said.

Investigators have found no reports of domestic violence between the husband and wife at their residence, another Los Angeles Police Department detective said.

A woman described as a close friend of Jace's first wife said in a sworn statement that she witnessed Jace physically abusing his wife in 1997. The declaration was in court records from Jace's 2005 custody case concerning his son with Jennifer Bitterman.

Jace "choked and hit" his wife and "slammed her against the wall while (their infant son) screamed in his crib next to her," Maria De Le Vegas said in the sworn declaration obtained by CNN.

Jace "was raging and out of control, and seeing the extent of his anger was one of the most terrifying things I have ever seen," she said.

Jace appeared to suffer severe financial strain in recent years, according to court documents obtained by CNN. The actor filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in March 2011, citing $500,000 in debts and an annual income of around $80,000 from residuals from his TV and film work, the documents said.

Jace had defaulted on the $411,000 mortgage on the south Los Angeles home where his wife died, according to the documents.

He married April Jace in June 2003, a year after divorcing his first wife, with whom he shared a son who is now a teen.

The FX police drama "The Shield" provided the biggest and longest-running role in Jace's 22-year acting career. He appeared in 89 episodes as Julien Lowe, who started as a rookie officer in an inner-city Los Angeles police precinct in 2002 and rose through the ranks to become a detective before the series ended in 2008, according to the Internet Movie Database.

He acted on several episodes of "Southland," another TV drama about Los Angeles police, between 2009 and 2012.

Jace often played a law enforcement or military officer on television shows. He is credited with roles in "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Private Practice," "The Mentalist," "Burn Notice" and "NYPD Blue."

He had the title role of Michael Jordan in the 1999 TV movie about the NBA star, "Michael Jordan: An American Hero."

Jace played Officer Brown in Russell Crowe's 2009 film "State of Play," and he portrayed a Black Panther member in the 1994 blockbuster movie "Forrest Gump."

April Jace had worked for the past year as a financial aid counselor at Biola University, a private school in La Mirada, California, according to the school.

"We are obviously shocked and saddened by this terrible news, to lose a wonderful colleague, mother and friend," Biola President Barry Corey said in a written statement.

"April's radiant personality brought great energy to the financial aid office," financial aid director Geoff Marsh said. "Her love for helping students and families and her great work ethic earned the respect and love of her coworkers. Her smiling face and helpful spirit will be missed by all."