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receiving 1 to 2 inches.
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SD woman in toddler death faces drug charges
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- One of two adults arrested after a 2-year-old girl was found dead in their Wagner home has been charged with possessing drugs.
• South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley and Charles Mix County States Attorney Pam Hein announced Monday that 29-year-old Laurie Cournoyer, has been charged with possessing methamphetamine, ingesting methamphetamine and possessing unauthorized articles in jail.
• Prosecutors say the 2-year-old girl's body was in a closet for nearly two days before Cournoyer and her husband, Taylor, reported her death.
• Laurie Cournoyer has also been charged with child abuse and failing to notify law enforcement about a child's death. Those charges are still pending.
• Taylor Cournoyer pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine and keeping a place for use or sale of drugs as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
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SD woman asks for stay in Moeller execution
DIRK LAMMERS,Associated Press
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A woman with loose family ties to South Dakota death row inmate Donald Moeller asked a federal judge Monday to stop Moeller's upcoming execution.
• Moeller, 60, has said he's ready to accept death as the consequence for the 1990 kidnapping, rape and murder of 9-year-old Becky O'Connell. His execution is set for the week of Oct. 28.
• Donna Nichols, whose mother married Moeller's stepfather, said in her filing that Moeller wasn't psychologically qualified to dismiss his appeals. She claims that Moeller's years of confinement and psychological problems have made him incapable of making voluntary and rational decisions.
• Nichols, of Sioux Falls, did not appear at the Monday hearing. Her Rapid City-based attorney, Robert Van Norman, asked U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol via teleconference to issue a stay and appoint Nichols as a friend of the court.
• Moeller, who recently asked Judge Piersol to dismiss his appeals and let him die, said there's no real connection between him and Nichols.
• "She's not family," he told the judge. "She's not been a friend."
• Piersol took the attorneys' arguments under advisement and said he'll issue a prompt decision.
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