state briefs 4a 6/8

Officials say men's deaths murder-suicide

POLK, Mo. -- Two men were shot to death early Friday near this small Southwest Missouri town, and authorities are investigating the killings as a murder-suicide.

The Polk County sheriff's office said the shootings happened at the home of one of the dead men. His age was given as 47, but his name was not released.

The other man was identified as Stanley Richard Yarber, 42, of Polk. A woman in the home at the time of the killings was unharmed.

The sheriff's office gave this version of events:

The 47-year-old man had been gone from home for several days and returned home to find Yarber and the woman. A fight ensued, and the older man went to get a revolver.

Yarber was shot in the groin.

Deputies at the scene in response to a 911 call heard a gunshot from inside the house and found both men dead.

Arrests follow ransom try of stolen property

JOPLIN, Mo. -- Two people who allegedly offered to ransom stolen goods back to a burglary victim now face felony charges of receiving stolen property after the woman called police.

"We get a few oddball cases, and this was one of them," Joplin police spokesman Delmar Haase said. "We'd solve a lot more burglaries if they operated that way more often."

Dina M. Ortega, 34, and Michael L. Barbaro, 32, both of Joplin, were arrested Wednesday at a Wal-Mart store, where they had allegedly arranged to meet the burglary victim and exchange the property for "a few hundred dollars."

Barbaro remained jailed Friday on $3,500 bond; Ortega posted the same bond Thursday and was released.

The woman's home was burglarized Tuesday night, Haase said, with the thieves taking a computer, a television, a videocassette recorder and prescription drugs.

"Soon after we took the report, the victim got a call from someone who said to bring a few hundred dollars to the ... Wal-Mart, and she'd get her property back," Haase said. "She called us, and we went to the store and found the two suspects with most of her property."

Woman gets probation for trying to set fire

MOUNT VERNON, Ill. -- A Mount Vernon woman was sentenced to four years' probation and counseling after she poured gasoline in her house and threatened to light it on fire, knowing her 9-year-old daughter was inside, prosecutors said Friday.

Gloria Collins, 45, was sentenced Tuesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court. She pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated arson in December, Jefferson County State's Attorney Gary Duncan said.

Collins' two children, 9 and 17, were removed from her care after the incident in September, Duncan said.

According to court documents, Collins "poured gasoline throughout the residence," knowing that her daughter was inside at the time. While she did so, she made threats to "burn the house down," according to the documents. Collins, who had no prior criminal convictions, had been fighting with her boyfriend, Duncan said.

Her 17-year-old son discovered the scene and stopped his mother before she ignited the gasoline, Duncan said. The woman's boyfriend, who has not been identified, notified police.

Duncan said there was no evidence Collins was trying to injure her daughter and that she never lit the gasoline. No one was hurt in the incident.

-- From wire reports