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Toddler finds gun, accidentally shoots mom in leg
• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- Rapid City police say a toddler who found a handgun inside a home accidentally shot his mother in the leg as she tried to take it away from him.
• Police spokeswoman Tarah Heupel tells The Associated Press that the revolver fired two shots, one of which hit the woman, during the incident just after 9 p.m. Thursday. The mother was taken to the hospital for treatment, but Heupel says the injury did not appear to be serious.
• The mother tried to get the revolver away from the 23-month-old boy as soon as she noticed he was holding it.
• Heupel says the shooting was deemed accidental and no charges are pending.
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SD man serving life to get resentencing hearing
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A South Dakota judge has granted a resentencing hearing for a man serving a life prison sentence for killing a cab driver near Fort Pierre nearly 18 years ago.
• Paul Dean Jensen Jr., of Pierre, was 14 at the time Michael Hare was slain. Jensen argued that his sentence is illegal under a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles.
• Defense attorney Jeff Larson said during Friday's hearing that the case involves correcting the sentence, not changing the conviction.
• But prosecutor Tom P. Maher said Jensen's sentence was lawful in 1996 and remains lawful today.
• The U.S. Supreme Court last year said life sentences without parole for juveniles cannot be automatic, but left open the possibility that judges could still sentence juveniles to life without parole after considering the circumstances of each case.
• State prosecutors have argued that the Supreme Court ruling does not apply retroactively to cases such as Jensen's.
• However, Circuit Judge John Brown said he felt compelled by the Supreme Court ruling to allow a resentencing in Jensen's case. A hearing date will be set later.
• Prosecutors have said Jensen and Shawn Cameron Springer, who was 16 at the time, had Hare drive them out of town and then robbed him before shooting him to death. Prosecutors said Jensen pulled the trigger.
• Springer was sentenced to 261 years in prison after pleading guilty to kidnap (Continued on page 18)
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