Woman, 42, is killed in smoky house fire

A 42-year-old woman died after smoke and fire ravaged her home shortly before 4:30 p.m. yesterday. Firefighters found Kerrin M. Kelly-Nelson on the second floor of her single-family house at 248 Centre Ave. She was transported to Brockton Hospital, where she later died. A Plymouth district attorney's spokeswoman said an autopsy will be performed. An investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of the fire. Three firefighters injured in an explosion in the kitchen were treated and released from South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, authorities said. The explosion may have been caused by a propane tank, Fire Chief J. Michael Sammon said.

Divers searching for a missing fishing captain have recovered a body following an accident at a fish pier in New Bedford. A spokesman for the Bristol district attorney said that the body has not been positively identified, but that authorities believe it is that of Kenneth Thuestad. The fishing captain reportedly jumped into the frigid waters to rescue a crewmate, Robert Glover of Newcastle, Maine, who fell into the sea while he was attempting to board the fishing vessel Arcturus early Tuesday morning. The Standard Times of New Bedford reported that Glover's body was found when police arrived at the scene. The body believed to be that of Thuestad was later recovered from underneath a pier late yesterday afternoon. (AP)

The trial of a former Marshfield High student charged with plotting an attack on the school has been tentatively scheduled for Feb. 11. Joseph Nee, 21, and his lawyer, Thomas Drechsler, appeared in Plymouth Superior Court in Brockton yesterday for a pretrial conference. Nee was indicted in October 2004 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, promotion of anarchy, and threatening to use deadly weapons at school.

A jury on Cape Cod is deliberating the case of a man charged with animal cruelty in the fatal shootings of two pit bulls. A lawyer for Keith Kynock said the dogs were out of control, attacking Kynock, his mother, and two other dogs. Attorney Keith Deehan said Kynock and Todd Soderberg, who pleaded guilty last year, feared for their lives and had no choice but to use semiautomatic rifles to kill the animals. Deehan told the Barnstable District Court jury that his client had tried to do a favor for a friend by caring for the pit bulls while their owner was moving. (AP)

Fitchburg State College has received a gift of $1.5 million to establish an endowed chair in Italian studies and Western civilization. The gift, the schools' largest, came from Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio, class of 1938. The chair will be the college's first in that subject, and the gift will pay for the salary, research, publications, and travel the teaching post requires. Gallucci-Cirio donated $1 million to the college in 2002, which was previously the largest donation.

Trial is expected to begin today in Hampden Superior Court for three men charged with extortion in an alleged mob-related shakedown in Springfield. Prosecutors said one of the defendants, Anthony Arillotta, was a top lieutenant of former mob boss Al Bruno, who was gunned down in 2003 outside a Springfield social club. Arillotta and brothers Ty and Fotios "Freddy" Geas are accused of trying to shake down two video-poker machine owners in 2004. (AP)

A Machias man was charged yesterday with killing a man and a woman and wounding the woman's 6-year-old girl. Richard W. Widdecomb Jr., 25, was charged with murder in the shooting deaths of Katie Cabana, 29, of Marshfield, and Aaron Settipani, 41, of Eastport, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Widdecomb, who had recently broken up with Cabana, shot the woman in her home and Settipani in his truck outside her home, McCausland said. One of Cabana's three children, Autumn Rodgers, 6, was near her mother and was shot in the foot, McCausland said. (AP)