At a glance

At a glance

Doc gets 15 years for patient's death

SAN DIEGO: A former doctor, who cut off a 79-year-old man's healthy leg resulting in his death, was sentenced to 15 years in jail on Friday.Former Dr John Ronald Brown, 77, was convicted of second-degree murder for the death of Philip Bondy on May 11, 1998. Bondy had asked Brown to amputate the leg to fulfill a lifelong fetish of having a limb removed, officials said. Following Bondy's death, Brown lost his license to practice medicine in 1977. He had been performing sex-change operations on transsexuals ever since. Superior court Judge Bernard Revak said he was most bothered by Brown's lack of care for Bondy after he cut off his leg in Tijuana, Mexico.

Pet snake kills woman

LOS ANGELES: A ZOO volunteer who kept 10 poisonous snakes in her mobile home died of a bite from one of her pets. The police found her body with a note of help clenched in her severely swollen hand. The note in Anita Finch's hand read, "Northridge hospital- ask for ICU." "We canonly surmise she was attempting to seek help but was not able to do so because whatever happened, happened suddenly," said Scott Carrier, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner.