Man sentenced for firing at chopper

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A man who fired at a Georgia State Patrol helicopter that he didn’t like flying near his house has been sentenced to more than 15 years in federal prison.

Terry Kielisch, 56, was sentenced this week on federal charges of assaulting a person assisting an officer of the U.S. and one count of use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia said in a statement Thursday.

He was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release following his 183-month prison term.

Prosecutors said that a Georgia State Patrol trooper was piloting the helicopter in March 2019 with a Richmond County Sheriff’s Office investigator as a passenger when Kielisch shot at the aircraft using a .308-caliber Remington 770. Neither the trooper nor the investigator were injured.

The helicopter was providing support in a search for suspects accused of drug trafficking and illegal firearms possession in Georgia and South Carolina, authorities said. Kielisch was not the target of the operation.

Mom charged in deaths of infants

APPLE VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California woman has pleaded not guilty to smothering her infant daughter in March and causing the death of her other baby girl three years ago.

Kristin Ann Brandon, 28, of Apple Valley entered pleas Aug. 6 to murder in the March death and two charges of assault on a child causing death involving both babies.

She was being held on $1.5 million bail.

Brandon’s 2-month-old daughter, Natalie Brandon, was found dead on March 3 at a mobile home park in Apple Valley, in the Mojave Desert northeast of Los Angeles.

During that investigation, detectives learned that Brandon’s 2-month-old daughter, Aryana Harper, died in 2017.

Investigators located a witness who provided information that “determined Aryana’s death was also a result of negligence while Kristin was under the influence,” the statement said.