Jury still out in Chinatown murder trial

A Suffolk Superior Court jury finished its first full day of deliberations yesterday without reaching a verdict in the murder trial of two men accused of executing five men inside a Chinatown social club in 1991. In response to a jury request to examine evidence, Judge Stephen Neel provided two handguns recovered from the Tyler Street crime scene. Defense attorneys had contended in closing arguments that ballistic evidence did not match the testimony of the shooting's sole survivor, Pak Wing Lee. Siny Van Tran, 48, and Nam The Tham, 46, are each charged with five counts of first-degree murder. A third suspect is believed to be in China. Deliberations resume today.

AG asks court to force school closure

The attorney general's office asked the state appeals court yesterday to force a Roxbury charter school to obey a state order to close. Last week Suffolk Superior Court Judge Geraldine Hines ruled that the Roxbury Charter High Public School could stay open while it battles the state Board of Education's vote Sept. 14 to close it because of financial and management problems. School officials dispute the closure order, saying parents feel their children are better off at the quasi-public school than in regular public schools. The attorney general's office also is asking for a list of students to make sure they get enrolled in other schools.

Pickup hits boy, causing minor injuries

An 11-year-old Dorchester boy received minor injuries when he was struck by a pickup truck early yesterday in Roxbury, Boston police said. The accident happened about 6:45 a.m. at Seaver Street and Humboldt Avenue, police said. Witnesses told police they saw a truck strike the boy and then drive away. Police said the driver turned herself in yesterday afternoon. She was not arrested, and she had not been charged with a crime yesterday afternoon, Officer John Boyle said. The child, whose name was not released, was taken to Children's Hospital for observation.

Quincy officer accused of drunken driving

A rookie Quincy patrol officer pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of drunken driving and failing to stop for a police officer after she rear-ended a van early Sunday in South Boston, police and prosecutors said. State Police said Siobhan O'Connor, 25, was driving at 100 miles per hour on Interstate 93 northbound just before 2 a.m. and failed to pull over for a State Police cruiser. She exited the highway in South Boston, where she struck a van carrying seven passengers, prosecutors said. No one was seriously injured. O'Connor, who was off duty, had been sworn in as a Quincy police officer in January. She has been placed on administrative leave pending the criminal and internal investigations, Quincy police said. Quincy has fired three police officers this year, including one for drunken driving, Mayor William Phelan said.

CHELSEA

Police seek 2 men in shooting deathPolice and state officials are seeking two men in their 20s or late teens in the shooting death last week of 25-year-old Oscar Calix. Police say one of the men shot Calix on Addison Street on Sept. 25 at about 11:15 p.m. before riding away in a beige or tan sedan driven by the second man. The motive for the shooting is under investigation, officials said. Calix, a 2000 graduate of Chelsea High School, was a Honduran immigrant who worked at the AutoZone in Everett at the time of his death.

NORTH HAMPTON, N.H.

Stolen pickup involved in fatal crash

Police are investigating a traffic fatality involving a pickup truck reported stolen in Newbury, Mass. Police said a passenger, Richard Knowles, 52, of North Hampton, was found dead in the pickup, which crashed Monday on Hobbs Road. The alleged driver, Samantha Engelking, 22, of Portsmouth, and a passenger Travis Papoulias, 29, of Newbury, Mass., were hospitalized in Boston. (AP)

METHUEN

Man dies after rear-ending tractor-trailerA Billerica man was killed yesterday when his pickup truck rammed into the back of a tractor-trailer parked in the breakdown lane of southbound Interstate 495 in Methuen, police said. At about 9:20 a.m., state troopers from the Andover barracks were dispatched to the scene of the crash between Routes 213 and 110. Peter Jenkins, 49, of Billerica, the driver of the pickup, was pronounced dead at the scene, State Police said. The tractor-trailer driver, Norik Manaoukian, 55, of Glendale, Calif., was treated for minor injuries at Lawrence Hospital and released. The crash was under investigation.