Four-car crash injures two
LONDONDERRY — Two people went to area hospitals after being injured in a four-car crash at the corner of Parmenter and Nashua roads around 2 p.m. on May 27. Londonderry police Lt. Scott Saunders said the injuries were minor.
Police are investigating the cause of the accident and details about the collision were not available, Saunders said. A red 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee careened off the road and went down the embankment, according to Londonderry fire Capt. Darren O'Brien.
Rescue workers did not need to use special machinery to reach any of the injured.
The other vehicles involved were a green 2005 Honda Odyssey, a blue 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee and a gray 2003 Ford Mustang, police said.
One of the injured was being treated at Parkland Medical Center and a second injured person was taken to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, O'Brien said.
Two people escaped the accident without injuries, he said. Rescue workers moved the second injured person into a waiting ambulance at 2:28 p.m., and left the accident scene.
Derry Fire displaces seven
DERRY — Fire destroyed a Warner Hill Road home Friday night, but all seven residents escaped unharmed.
Derry firefighters were called to a one-story ranch home at 75 Warner Hill Road at 9 p.m. for a report of a structure fire. When they arrived, they found heavy flames in the basement that had begun to extend through the rest of the home, according to a Derry Fire Department press release.
The two adults and five children who lived there were home when the fire started, but were already outside when the Fire Department arrived, according to the release.
Derry assessment records list the owner of the home as Lance Stevens.
Derry fire Battalion Chief Jack Webb said in his report that the fire was "difficult to contain," and by the time it was extinguished, the building and all of its contents were a "total loss."
The five children were evaluated by paramedics at the scene, but did not require further medical attention, according to Webb's report. No firefighters were injured.
Firefighters from Hampstead, Chester, Auburn, Atkinson, Windham and Londonderry all responded to the fire scene to assist Derry.
The fire is under investigation by the Derry fire and police departments.
Derry man faces counterfeiting charges
DERRY — A Derry man has been indicted on charges of manufacturing counterfeit $100 bills and passing them at local stores, including ones in Methuen and Haverhill, Mass. William McCarthy of Silvestri Circle was indicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court on counterfeiting charges.
The Secret Service began investigating a man, later identified as McCarthy, on March 31, when police recovered video footage of him from a Taco Bell in Haverhill passing a fake $50 bill.
On April 15, store workers at Old Navy and Borders at The Loop in Methuen reported to police they were given counterfeit $100 bills, according to a federal affidavit by Secret Service Agent Brian Coffee.
Methuen police identified McCarthy as being the same person who passed the bills at the Old Navy and Borders, Coffee wrote.
Court records show McCarthy already has a history of using counterfeit bills. He was convicted in U.S. District Court in 2001 for uttering counterfeit currency.
Secret Service agents put McCarthy under surveillance outside his Derry apartment on April 23. They followed him as he left his apartment and went to two stores in Manchester with a woman who tried to pass fake bills as well, the affidavit said. Manchester police pulled over McCarthy and the woman once investigators confirmed she passed a fake bill at one of the stores.
On April 24, Derry police executed a search warrant at his house at 4:30 a.m., and seized computers, printers, scanners and other equipment they believed was used to make the fake money, according to Coffee.
McCarthy has been held without bail since his arrest on April 29.
Knight found guilty, sentenced to life
BRENTWOOD, N.H. — A jury found Robin Knight guilty of all charges in the 2005 murder-for-hire killing of Derry resident Jack Reid. He will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A red-faced Knight sat with his head in his hands at the defense table for a moment before he was led out of the courtroom yesterday to await his sentencing hearing.
The jury returned a guilty verdict on a charge of accomplice to first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence for Knight, a general contractor from North Hampton.
They also found him guilty of accomplice to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Reid's daughters wept from the front row of the court gallery, then rushed to prepare statements for the sentencing hearing, not knowing if they would need them until the jury came back.
Minutes later, they returned to Courtroom 2 to vent their anger and sadness over the loss of Reid, 57, a father of five who operated a one-man moving and hauling business.
It took jurors just five hours to return their verdict after getting the case Thursday afternoon.
Rockingham Superior Court Judge Tina Nadeau called for a near-immediate sentencing hearing because a first-degree murder conviction carries no quarter for punishment in New Hampshire. It's life with no chance of parole.
Knight, 57, was drawn into the murder plot by his employer, Derry millionaire John "Jay" Brooks, who made his fortune with a medical supply company, Poly-Vac. He then bought and sold real estate in New Hampshire and Las Vegas.
Brooks convinced Knight to use the alias "Charlie Was" and a disposable cell phone to con Reid into thinking he was reporting to a Deerfield horse farm for a moving job.
On June 27, 2005, Knight greeted Reid at the front door of the house, shook his hand, offered him some water, then led him down a long hallway to a connected barn where Reid was bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer.
Jaye Klos, one of Reid's daughters, said Knight's claim he had no idea he was setting up her father to be killed was insulting.
"How dare you come into this courtroom and perpetrate this fraud that you had no idea what was going to take place in that barn?" Klos said. "To act like you were the victim in this case. ... You took the word of John Brooks hook, line and sinker all because of your greed. You make me sick. The fact that you walked through that hallway and just stepped aside to allow others to follow through with this plan makes you an animal and a coward. You bragged about your actions in jail and you didn't even know him. He was a good man, a hardworking man."
Knight's punishment is the most serious sentence except for that of the man convicted of orchestrating the murder. Brooks, 56, of Derry is serving a life sentence for capital murder after a two-month trial last fall.
