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STATE

HOOKSTOWN — The Pennsylvania Game Commission and a coroner are investigating the death of a Western Pennsylvania hunter found shot in the head.

The body of 35-year-old Dwayne Smith, of Frankfort Springs, was found Saturday in a wooded area near the borough, which is about 25 miles west of Pittsburgh.

Beaver County Coroner Teri Tatalovich-Rossi said an autopsy Sunday showed Smith died of a single shot to the head.

But the coroner said she is waiting for information from the state police and the game commission before ruling on the manner of Smith's death.

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Western Pennsylvania man has been ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution for timber thefts soon or face six months in jail.Blair County Judge Daniel Milliron says Harold Ritchey Jr., of Claysburg, hasn't kept up with his payments and gave him until Friday to come up with $4,000. Ritchey had to pay $1,000 last Friday. Ritchey pleaded no contest in October 2007 to illegal timbering charges.Ritchey was ordered to pay a total of $32,360 in restitution and was also sentenced to six months in jail for the no contest plea.Ritchey's son, Francis Ritchey, who operated a similar business, was sentenced last month to four years in prison and was ordered to repay $498,000.

HADLEY — A Western Pennsylvania man was killed trying to help another motorist pull her car out of a ditch.The Mercer County Coroner says 29-year-old Jason Spencer, of Hadley, died of a broken neck when he was crushed between two vehicles in the chain-reaction crash that resulted.Police said Spencer stopped his Jeep in Perry Township Saturday afternoon to help a woman whose car slid off the snow covered road.Spencer was hooking a tow strap to the woman's car when another vehicle slid into the rear of Spencer's Jeep, pinning him between it and the car in the ditch.

PITTSBURGH — The family and friends of a woman charged with fatally shooting an FBI agent plan to rally outside the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh before her hearing.A federal magistrate must decide today if there's probable cause to support the charges against Christine Korbe and also whether she should be kept in jail until she stands trial.She is accused of fatally shooting Special Agent Sam Hicks on Nov. 19 as he tried to serve a warrant on Korbe's husband at their Indiana Township home. Korbe's attorney John Elash said she believed she was defending herself and her children from people she thought were intruders.

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