A former bookkeeper will serve two years in prison for embezzling a little more than $135,000 from the Gulfport law firm.

The Sun Herald reports that Circuit Judge Larry Bourgeois gave Heather Denise Parker the maximum penalty of 10 years on Monday and suspended eight, leaving two to serve. He also ordered restitution.

Prosecutors say once Parker serves her time, she will be brought before the judge for an order on how to repay the money.

She had been free on bond since Dec. 6, when she pleaded guilty in Harrison County Circuit Court.

As the chief courier of a California-to-Ohio marijuana shipping scheme pleaded guilty Friday, prosecutors said the investigation continued into other possible suspects in the plot that brought hundreds of pounds of marijuana hidden in suitcases to Ohio on private jets.

Authorities say Lisette Lee was the primary courier for a scheme that distributed about 7,000 pounds of the drug and made more than $3 million from November 2009 through April.

"Obviously other people were involved in the case," assistant U.S. attorney Tim Pritchard said after Lee pleaded guilty. "We're continuing to look as we were from the first day."

Lee, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana. She faces 10 years to life, though under federal sentencing rules she's likely to receive the lower sentence.

Frank Edwards, of Hacienda, Calif., was among five others arrested in the case. He pleaded guilty Friday to a similar charge involving more than 200 pounds of pot. He faces five to 40 years in prison, but also is not expected to receive the longest term.

Lee recruited Edwards, 40, to act as a courier and he was not involved in obtaining or distributing the marijuana, according to testimony Friday by Matthew Heufelder, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent.

A janitor pleaded not guilty to murder Friday in the death of a Northern California school principal who was shot after sending the suspect home to "cool off" over a personnel dispute.

John Luebbers, 44, was charged after telling investigators he fired two shots and struck Principal Sam LaCara, 50, in the office at Louisiana Schnell Elementary School in Placerville, police said. Luebbers told police that LaCara had fired him Wednesday just days after the two friends had gone golfing.

School officials, however, said Luebbers had only been sent home for the day after the two had an argument about the district's selection of a new nighttime custodian. Luebbers entered a not guilty plea during his arraignment Friday afternoon and was held without bail. Family members attended the hearing but did not address reporters outside

A California man accused of threatening to blow up a Detroit-area mosque told a judge on Friday he wanted a new lawyer, saying his current counsel "is a Shiite" and a "patron of the mosque."

Roger Stockham, 63, appeared at what was scheduled to be his preliminary examination on charges of making a false report or threat of terrorism and one count of possessing explosives with an unlawful intent.

But he instead told Dearborn District Court Judge Mark Somers: "I reject my appointed counsel. He is a Shiite," referring to the sect of Islam.

Defense attorney Mark Haidar, who wasn't present for the hearing, told The Associated Press earlier this week that he disclosed his Muslim faith to Stockham during their initial meeting at the jail.

Somers said he recognized Stockham was not satisfied with his legal representation, ordered him to a holding area and said he would see about getting him a new attorney.

A former California state mental hospital director was found guilty Thursday of sexually abusing his adopted son in what prosecutors contend was a pattern of preying on young boys that spanned four decades.

A Superior Court jury convicted 63-year-old Claude Foulk of 31 of 35 counts of sex crimes, including lewd and lascivious acts on a child and sodomy by use of force.

Foulk did not show any reaction as the verdict was read.

He was found guilty of 20 counts of forcible oral copulation, nine counts of sodomy and two counts of lewd acts. He was found not guilty of two counts of sodomy and two counts of oral copulation, charges that were alleged to have happened after the son turned 18.

Prosecutors say another 11 men also came forward to claim Foulk molested them as children dating back to 1965, but only the son's case could be prosecuted because of the statute of limitations.

Foulk was fired from his post at Napa State Hospital after his arrest last year.

He could face a maximum sentence of up to 248 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 23.

During an emotional weeklong trial, five now-grown men testified that Foulk abused them for years. They claimed the man they knew as an uncle and foster father bought them pizza and took them to a mountain cabin before forcing them to engage in sex acts.

One of Foulk's two adopted sons told jurors Foulk abused him from the time he was 9 until he was 21, telling him it was how a man shows love.

Police have arrested a 29-year-old Las Vegas man in a brazen armed robbery of $1.5 million in casino chips from the posh Bellagio resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

Anthony M. Carleo was being held Thursday at the Clark County jail pending a Friday court appearance on felony armed robbery and burglary charges.

Las Vegas police say Carleo was the motorcycle-helmeted robber who waved a gun, grabbed high-value casino chips and made off on a motorcycle before dawn Dec. 14. No shots were fired and no one was hurt. Police said then that they thought the same man robbed the Suncoast casino in northwest Las Vegas early Dec. 8.

But stealing $1.5 million in chips isn't like stealing $1.5 million, experts and police pointed out at the time. Chips are unique to casino properties and are generally not interchangeable, although state regulations let casino companies redeem sister properties' chips with some restrictions.