Compiled from staff and wire reports

Judge orders delay of Henderson's execution

A federal judge in Cincinnati on Thursday stayed inmate Jerome Henderson's execution to allow an appeals court to review the convicted killer's challenge of his death sentence.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel will allow defense lawyers to make their arguments to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Henderson's execution date had not been set while his appeal was pending.

Henderson, 44, was convicted of aggravated murder, burglary and attempted rape in the March 1985 slaying of his neighbor Mary Acoff. Acoff, 26, of Cincinnati, had fought with her attacker and was beaten and repeatedly stabbed before her body was found in her apartment, investigators said.

Lawyers for Henderson challenged his conviction on the basis that recent DNA testing found no evidence of semen in Acoff's body.

But the state's lawyers said that was irrelevant because a conviction for attempted rape does not require that sexual penetration occurred.

Spiegel said he agreed with the state, but wanted to give Henderson the chance to make his argument before the appeals court because he was facing execution.

New law credited for 20 newborns sheltered

Twenty babies who otherwise might have been abandoned to die have been safely left at Ohio hospitals and other emergency services since the state's Safe Havens for Newborns law was passed in April 2001.

Under the law, parents may deliver unharmed newborns less than 72 hours old to a hospital, police agency or other emergency service center without fear of prosecution. County child service agencies then put the babies up for adoption.

The 20 babies include four dropped off in Hamilton County and one in Butler County, according to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.

For information about the Safe Havens program, call (800) 755-4769 or check the program Web site at www.state.oh.us/odjfs/safehavens.

Ammonia leak at beer plant closes roads

TRENTON - At least 100 pounds of anhydrous ammonia gas leaked Thursday from the Miller Brewing Co. plant near this Butler County community, forcing authorities to close roads around the plant for about 30 minutes. No injuries were reported.

Butler County sheriff's officers reopened the roads once they determined there was no hazard, sheriff's spokesman Monte Mayer said. The leak was quickly repaired, he said.

The gas leaked from the plant's refrigeration system, brewery spokeswoman Hillary Johnson said.

The cause of the leak wasn't known, she said.

Police find carefully cultivated marijuana

MADISON TWP. - Some property owners here were using irrigation systems and fertilizer to nurture an illicit cash crop - 117 marijuana plants - the Butler County Sheriff's Office said.

Acting on an anonymous tip, drug and vice investigators went up in the sheriff's helicopter on Wednesday and specially trained "spotters" were able to single out the plants from the air, said Detective Monte Mayer, sheriff's spokesman.

The airborne deputies directed officers on the ground to move in and confiscate the plants, some of which were still in starter pots.

Investigators believe the plants were initially grown inside, then transplanted outside, Mayer said.

As of Thursday, no one had been arrested, but Mayer said multiple property owners were expected to be charged with felonies.

Man charged in scalding of 6-year-old

HAMILTON - A Butler County jury on Thursday convicted a man of felony child endangering for pouring hot water on his girlfriend's 6-year-old daughter.

Richard Nitz, 30, who had recently moved from Florida to St. Clair Township, was found guilty after six hours of deliberations.

County Prosecutor Robin Piper, who handled the case, commended Butler County sheriff's detectives Jason Rosser and Melina Smith for their investigation of the incident, in which the child suffered first- and second-degree burns.

Nitz, who faces two to eight years in prison, is to be sentenced Aug. 28 by Judge Keith Spaeth.

Vehicle runs down, kills 22 Canada geese

MENTOR, Ohio - State wildlife officials say 22 Canada geese were intentionally run down and killed with a vehicle in a corporate parking lot in this Cleveland suburb.

"This is so disturbing and so sad," said Dawn Ryan, a bird lover who hangs feeders outside her office window nearby.

Ryan was one of the first to discover the geese scattered in the parking lot Wednesday morning.

"It takes a sick individual to do something like this," she said, looking at the carcasses with broken necks and wings strewn alongside company cars.

Canada geese are federally protected under wildlife laws and cannot be killed without a permit except during hunting season, ODNR wildlife supervisor Dan Kramer said.