DALLAS

Relatives of slain woman want ‘Bernie’ back in prison

When the East Texas mortician who inspired the movie “Bernie” was let out of prison, family members of the elderly woman he killed found out about his release from reporters. Now, they’re fighting to have their protests heard inside a courtroom.

Bernie Tiede’s attorneys have opposed a request by the family of Marjorie Nugent to argue their side to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is still considering whether to formally approve Tiede’s release from prison on bond this past May.

Tiede was given a life sentence in 1999 for shooting the 81-year-old Nugent four times before hiding her body in her freezer in the East Texas town of Carthage. Interest in the case surged after the 2011 release of the movie “Bernie,” in which Jack Black portrays Tiede as a quirky mortician’s assistant beloved by the town. Nugent is depicted by Shirley MacLaine as a grumpy cheapskate.

Nugent’s family hopes to persuade the court that Tiede should be sent back to prison – and to push back against the movie’s portrayal of the case.

A judge in May ruled Tiede had been sentenced too harshly because jurors did not know he had felt abused by Nugent and that he had been sexually abused as a child.

LOS ANGELES

Cobra that was captured has potentially deadly bite

A monocled cobra that roamed a California neighborhood for days could have given a potentially deadly bite, a snake expert said Friday.

“There’s no indication that it’s had its venom glands removed,” said Ian Recchio, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Los Angeles Zoo.

The snake, about 3 feet long, was captured on Thursday in Thousand Oaks.

The bite of a monocled cobra can kill a person within hours if untreated.

– From news service reports