LUBBOCK, Texas —
    Amadeo Cruz Torres, 24, of Lubbock, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 15 years in federal prison, following his guilty plea in June 2015 to one count of production of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney John  Parker of the Northern District of Texas.
    Torres has been in custody since his arrest in June 2014.
    According to documents filed in the case, Torres met the teenage minor, “Jane Doe,” at South Plains Mall in Lubbock on June 17, 2014, after he had been communicating with her online, via Facebook, about the possibility of modeling.  Torres first represented himself to be a female modeling agent named “Amber.”
    The teenage victim’s mother took Jane Doe to the mall to meet the supposed modeling scout.  Jane Doe was advised that she would be meeting with “Shane,” the defendant.  Jane Doe was advised to meet with Torres without a parent or friend to minimize distractions.
    After meeting with Jane Doe in the mall’s food court, Torres took her to a family restroom and locked the door.  He took a video of her while he instructed her to engage in various poses.  Eventually, Torres directed her to disrobe completely so that he could film a nude video.  At one point during the “modeling session,” Torres convinced her to let him touch her in a sexually explicit manner to verify that she was not hiding drugs.
    Torres was arrested the following day at South Plains Mall where he had gone to meet another minor female.  Officers seized his video camera, cell phone and tablet computer.
    The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”
    The Lubbock Police Department and the FBI investigated.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy prosecuted.

HOUSTON (AP) —
    Police continued their search for a suspect Monday after releasing two men detained last week in connection with the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old student at Texas Southern University.
    Classes resumed Monday at the Houston campus where freshman Brent Randall was killed in a parking lot outside a school apartment complex. A second person was wounded in the gunfire and remained hospitalized in stable condition, police said.
    Police said Friday they had detained two of three men seen running into the Courtyard Apartments after the shooting earlier in the day. The man still being sought was then seen fleeing through a side door.
    Police spokesman Victor Senties said Monday the men who were questioned have since been released.
    Randall and the wounded man, whose name has not been released, were standing outside the apartments when they were approached by man who opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun.
    It was the third shooting within a week and the second within hours Friday at the university just south of downtown Houston.
    Police said a motive in Randall's death remained unknown and it was unclear if last week's shootings are related.
    The school was placed on lockdown for several hours after the shooting was reported and classed then were canceled for the remainder of Friday.
    School spokesman Kendrick Callis said university administrators were meeting Monday to address student concerns about safety.
    "We're working on all that and discussing the aftermath of all this and what they're going to do," Callis said. "I know when I got here this morning there was a police officer in my building, which is normally not the case."
    A patrol car also was outside the building, he said.
    Randall's death came the same day as a fatal shooting at Northern Arizona University, and about a week after eight students and a teacher were fatally shot at a community college in Oregon.

LUFKIN, Texas –
     A 47-year-old Lufkin, Texas man has been sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today.
    Phil Bernard Lewis pleaded guilty on Dec. 17, 2014, to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to 300 months in federal prison on Oct. 9, 2015 by U.S. District Judge Ron Clark.
            According to information presented in court, from 2011 to October 2014, Lewis conspired with others to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine from Mexico to customers in the United States, including Lufkin, Texas.  Much of the cocaine was converted to crack cocaine.  Lewis personally received shipments of cocaine from a supplier on a weekly basis and transported it to Lufkin.  Once in Lufkin, Lewis stored the cocaine and crack cocaine at several locations in Lufkin including houses on Dale Street, Booker Street, and East Texas Road, until the drugs were distributed to dealers for trafficking in the area.  Lewis was indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 1, 2014 and charged with drug trafficking violations.
            This case is the result of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) joint investigation, Operation Fowl Play.  The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.
            This case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Angelina County Sheriff’s Office, Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office, the Nacogdoches Police Department, and the Lufkin Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Baylor Wortham.

WACO, Texas (AP) —
    A settlement was reached with families of some victims of a massive West, Texas fertilizer explosion that killed 15 people and leveled part of the town two years ago, according to a post on the website of McLennan County, where a trial over their claims was set to begin.
    Jury selection for the trial had been scheduled to start Monday but a county website told potential jurors they were excused because "a settlement has been reached." No other details were provided.
    The blast on April 17, 2013 also injured hundreds, flattened a whole section of town and left a crater 90 feet wide and ten feet deep. Most of the victims were first responders who arrived to fight a fire at the facility but some nearby residents also were killed.
    District Court Judge Jim Meyer divided a host of lawsuits into three groups. The trial Monday was for the first group representing relatives of three men killed in the blast. They had sued local owners of the facility and companies that either manufactured or sold fertilizer to it.
    The owners of the West Fertilizer Co. had $1 million in liability coverage, but the damage from the explosion exceeded $200 million.
    The fire at the facility ignited in a seed room and quickly engulfed an area where ammonium nitrate was stored in wooden containers. The chemical caused a massive detonation, an investigation by the State Fire Marshals' Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said. Authorities never determined how the fire started.