The former Mayor of Martin, Ky., has been sentenced to 90 months in federal prison for various crimes including civil rights offenses and identity theft.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar sentenced the former mayor, Ruth Thomasine Robinson, 70, for conspiracy to violate civil rights, conspiracy to defraud the Social Security Administration, federal program fraud, aggravated identity theft and vote buying. Judge Thapar also sentenced Robinson’s husband, James “Red” Robinson, 64, to 40 months in prison for vote buying. Under federal law, the Robinsons must serve at least 85 percent of their respective prison sentences.

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Thomasine Robinson was convicted in May of the vote buying and civil rights violations. According to evidence at the trial, Thomasine Robinson and her co-conspirators intimidated poor and disabled citizens in order to gain their votes during Robinson’s 2012 campaign for re-election. For instance, members of the conspiracy directed residents of public housing to vote by absentee ballot under the supervision of Thomasine Robinson or another member of the conspiracy. The conspirators also targeted residents of private housing owned and leased by Thomasine Robinson.

Trial testimony established that the conspirators completed absentee ballots, marking their choice of candidates, and instructing the voters to sign the pre-marked ballots. Voters who complied by voting for Thomasine Robinson received promises of better living arrangements and other considerations. Voters who did not comply faced eviction or the loss of priority for public housing. In addition, the evidence established that the defendants offered to pay several voters to vote for Thomasine Robinson.

Thomasine Robinson was convicted in February of the identity theft and fraud offenses. Evidence at the trial established that from 2006 until January 2013, Ginger Marie Halbert, a co-conspirator, was purportedly working on a volunteer basis with Thomasine Robinson; in reality, Halbert was secretly being paid with federal funds. The funds used to pay Halbert were intended for the Martin Community Center and the Martin Housing Authority. Some of the misdirected money was supposed to fund an after school program for city children. To conceal the scheme, the defendants allegedly arranged for the checks to be made payable to Halbert’s son.

Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Howard S. Marshall, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Guy Fallen, Special Agent in Charge, Social Security Administration, Office of the Investigator General, Office of Investigations; and Jack Conway, Attorney General of Kentucky, jointly made the announcement today.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Social Security Administration, and the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ken Taylor and Andy Boone prosecuted this case on behalf of the federal government.

A woman was arrested in Hardin County for breaking into storage units and taking the contents inside.

Police say 43-year-old Stacie Radford broke into several units at the Vine Grove storage facility in Louisville. Officers say they found the stolen items, along with tools she used to break the locks.

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Radford is charged with burglary. Now, police are looking for her accomplice.

A suspected serial burglar was busted by police.

30-year old Christopher Miller was arrested Monday night in Nicholasville. According to court documents, he’s suspected of breaking into four Lexington businesses, all within the past month.

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Those businesses include the Smoke-N-More on Pimlico Parkway, Hibbett Sports on Richmond Road, the China King on Bryan Station Road, and Mi Pequena Hacienda on Landsdowne.

Two people are dead after a morning crash in southeastern Kentucky.

It happened on Highway 30 in Jackson County near the Laurel County line around 6:30 a.m.

After being shut down for about four hours, that stretch of roadway reopened at about 10:30.

Officials say a truck hauling cattle and a passenger car collided. The one person inside the truck and one person inside the car were killed.

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The exact cause of the crash is still being investigated, but some of the officials working the accident said it was probably the worst one they have seen in a couple years.

“When I got on scene, it was apparent that it was a very violent crash. There didn’t seem to be any skid marks in the road that we could see, but as far as what caused this accident, it would just be speculation on my part,” said Greg Hayes, Jackson County emergency management director.

At this time, the names of the victims haven’t been released.

Boyd County’s infamous duct tape bandit faces a Christmas Eve court date on charges connected to a mugging.

According to the Ashland Daily Independent, 32-year-old Kasey Kazee and his alleged accomplice, Jeffrey Driver, will go before a judge Dec. 24.

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The men are accused of assaulting and robbing an Ashland businessman on Dec. 1, taking personal items including cash, credit cards and a wedding band. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

Back in 2007, Kazee robbed a liquor store with his face and head covered by duct tape, with his shirt pulled up over his head.

8 News NOW has learned one of the women accused of taking part in a sex ring involving children is listed as a substitute teacher for the Clark County School District.

Terrie Sena was hired by the Clark County School District in 2012, school district officials confirmed.

Terrie and Deborah Sena appeared in Las Vegas Justice Court Monday morning.

Both are being held without bail for the alleged sexual abuse of at least 8 victims. They are facing 27 counts between the two of them. The charges include child abuse and neglect and sexual assault of a minor. Immediate and extended family members were victims, police said.

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The third suspect, Christopher Sena, is also facing numerous charges in the case. He is currently married to Deborah and Terrie is his ex-wife. Police say there are at least 8 victims, and possibly more.

Justice of the Peace Pro Tem Nancy Oesterle called the charges against the women “disturbing and shocking.”

Both women told the judge they could not afford legal representation. Oesterle said attorneys will be appointed to them.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson says he has put his top two prosecutors on the case.

“This is a very important case for this community because of the extent of the abuse, the number of victims and the unique dynamics of the relationships of all the parties,” he said.

Wolfson says the amount of evidence, including videos, pulled from the mobile home is overwhelming.

“The number of acts over many, many years, some were consensual, some were not,” he said.

There will be another court hearing Tuesday morning. All three, including Christopher Sena, are expected to appear before a judge at that time.

A woman has died after being hit by a vehicle Monday night along Versailles Road in Frankfort.

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Police said the vehicle was in the eastbound right lane when the driver struck a female pedestrian around 8 p.m. near Walnut Street next to Wendy’s. There is no crosswalk in that area.

The Franklin County Coroner has not released the name of the victim.

The family of a Knox County man said he was robbed and beaten, before dying on Monday at UK Hospital.

The Fayette County Chief Deputy Coroner said the incident happened to 68-year-old Jim Mills Jr. on Sunday afternoon near Route 11, on Hammons Fork Road outside Barbourville.

Mills’ son said his father was walking in the middle of the day when he was attacked near Route 11. He said whoever attacked and robbed his father, knew he carried money, and severely beat him.

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Both Mills’ family and the Fayette County Chief Deputy Coroner said the details of what exactly happened are unclear. Mills’ son said his father was able to give some sort of a description of the alleged crime to the Knox County Sheriff’s Department, before being taken to UK Hospital Sunday night.

The coroner said Mills passed away at UK Hospital Monday morning, and likely died from blunt force trauma to the head. However, an official autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday morning.

The Fayette County Chief Deputy Coroner confirms that Mills was pictured on the Sex Offender Registry website, where he was listed as living in Knox County and registered for sexual abuse

A Utica man has admitted filing 205 fraudulent tax returns for people then collecting more than $400,000 in refunds from the IRS.

Anas K. Wilson, 32, pleaded guilty this month to aggravated identity theft and theft of government property.

Wilson went to one unemployed woman’s door in 2012 and told her he was an IRS agent, according to an affidavit from IRS Special Agent Pavel Prilutsky. Wilson told the woman she was eligible for federal money under the stimulus package.

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Wilson told the woman that “President Obama was giving out money under a federal stimulus program and that most people had no knowledge about it,” the affidavit said. Wilson then told her he needed her personal information, such as her Social Security number, to get the money, and she gave it to him, the affidavit said.

Wilson had the woman give him names of other unemployed people who might be eligible, the affidavit said.

The fraudulent tax returns Wilson filed resulted in the IRS releasing $414,000 in tax refunds, court papers said.

Wilson directed the tax refunds to a bank account he’d set up, then had other people withdraw the money and give it to him in exchange for a small fee, according to federal prosecutors.

Wilson faces up to 10 years in prison. He’s scheduled to be sentenced April 14 by U.S. District Judge Frederick Scullin.

It’s been five years since two fetuses were found, days apart, in a Lexington cemetery.

Now, after extensive testing, the Fayette County Coroner’s Office is now reporting that the two fetuses were siblings. However, there are still many unanswered questions surrounding the disturbing discovery. How did the two wind up in the cemetery and where is their mother?

A woman walking her dog made the discovery on the grounds of Lexington’s Hillcrest Memorial Park in 2009.

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“It was a fetus, and it was identified as being a human fetus,” says Gary Ginn, Fayette County Coroner.

Ginn remembers the scene well. And just four days later, Ginn was back again in the same area. Another fetus had been found just over the cemetery’s fence.

Autopsies revealed that both were female around 22-weeks along. Until now, little was known aside from that.

“These two fetuses are related. They are sisters and they are identical twins,” says Ginn.

Extensive DNA testing led to that information. Investigators have said the incident is believed to be a concealed birth and not a homicide. Still, the cause of death is “undetermined.” Ethnicity of the two is unclear. It’s unknown exactly how the fetuses got to the cemetery and what became of their mother.

So, the next step Ginn says will be a funeral. The two sisters will be buried together at “Evergreen Memory Gardens” in Bourbon County. But with DNA for the twins on file, Ginn remains hopeful that someone will come forward with the full story.

“The mom or father might have a change of heart. You just don’t know the situation,” says Ginn.

Concealing a birth is considered a crime and is punishable by up to one year in jail. So far, a date has not been set for those sisters to be laid to rest.