NY: Man receives 3-year sentence for self-defense: "A Mount Vernon man cleared of homicide charges in the slaying of an ex-convict who had shot him years earlier was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for possessing the gun used in the killing. Mark Powell could have faced considerably more time in prison had jurors not found that he was justified in shooting Curtis Liburd Sept. 17 on East Fourth Street in Mount Vernon. The White Plains jury acquitted Powell of murder and manslaughter charges in January after believing his claim that he shot the unarmed Liburd in self-defense. Powell testified that he fired after Liburd threatened him and tried to grab his gun. He was also cleared of a more serious charge that accused him of intending to use the gun unlawfully. ... Powell acknowledged that he illegally possessed the gun. Westchester County Judge Rory Bellantoni said he would have liked to sentence Powell to the maximum seven years as prosecutor George Bolen requested. But he said he could not because that would have required him to consider that the possession of the gun led to Liburd's death -- which the jury verdict precluded the judge from doing."


IN: Intruder shot, killed: ""A 20-year-old man was shot to death about noon Wednesday as he tried to break into a home on the Far Eastside. Xavier Rashard Ivory, 1800 block of South State Street, was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospital after being shot once in the chest. Capt. Phil Burton of the Marion County Sheriff's Department said the owner of a home in the 8000 block of East 37th Street heard his doorbell ringing incessantly but ignored it in hopes that the person would go away. Shortly thereafter, the homeowner heard a pounding at his back door. On the way to the back door, he grabbed a firearm from a closet. At the back door, he heard and saw someone trying to force open the door. As he pulled back window blinds, he saw an arm come in through a broken window, Burton said.The homeowner fired one shot, striking Ivory in the chest."