NATIONAL BRIEFS

NEVADA: Dealer held in child's slaying

A blackjack dealer was charged with kidnapping and murder Wednesday in the death of her ex-boyfriend's daughter, adding to felony charges she faces in a slashing attack hours later against a co-worker at a Vegas Strip casino. Brenda Stokes Wilson, 50, picked up Jade Morris, 10, to go Christmas shopping, but instead took her to a vacant lot and killed her, police said. Prosecutor Robert Daskas told a judge that DNA tests found the child's blood on clothing Stokes Wilson wore that day and on the driver's door handle and steering wheel of the car she borrowed. Police and family members think the actions were sparked by jealousy. They said Stokes Wilson thought the child's father, Philip Morris, had begun dating Joyce Rhone, the woman slashed at the casino.

ALABAMA: Young pilot had his own key

A teen pilot killed along with two friends in a plane crash had his own key to the aircraft and had flown it many times, his mother said Wednesday, denying authorities' assertion that the plane had been taken without permission. Sherrie Smith said her son Jordan, 17, was the one flying the plane that went down in woods Tuesday night. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Piper PA 30 crashed less than a mile from the Walker County Airport in Jasper, northwest of Birmingham. Smith said her son, a high school junior, was one test short of earning his private pilot's license.

CALIFORNIA: Suspect held in slaying of 2

A man is under arrest after a New Year's Eve shooting at a bar in the Old Sacramento area that killed two people, police said. Carlito Montoya, 22, was among three people wounded after a shooting that occurred as people gathered to watch fireworks. Montoya was in custody at a hospital where he was being treated for gunshot wounds. Police say an argument in the bar became a physical confrontation. When an employee tried to break up the fight, he was shot, as were the woman and another man. That man, 35, and the employee, who was in his 20s, died at the scene.