The human endgames of the city’s too-well-known reputation for murder have played themselves out for decades in the nondescript, third-floor warrens of the John Marshall Courts Building. But over three days this week, from early morning until well into the night, a rare chapter in “the fight against the bad guys,“ as Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Learned Barry calls it, spoke to a turning tide.

A man dressed as a nurse slipped past security at the island’s largest medical center early Thursday and killed a patient recovering from a shooting, police said.

A homicide case pending for seven years ended last night with a conviction for first-degree murder that could send a longtime criminal to prison for as long as 40 years. “This was a major victory,“ Deputy Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Learned D. Barry said of defendant Antonio J. Jones after court. A seven-man, five-woman jury in Richmond Circuit Court took more than five hours to decide the “cold case,“ after which it recommended a 37-year sentence on the murder conviction plus a mandatory three years for a firearms conviction.

A Richmond man accused of killing a 21-year-old woman last year has been cleared of wrongdoing. A jury last week acquitted Marvin Jerome Hawkins, 40, of first-degree murder, robbery and other charges in connection with the shooting death of Erica Williams on Oct. 11 in South Richmond. The jury deliberated less than a half-hour at the trial Aug. 6.

Corsican officials say a 16-year-old boy has confessed to shooting and killing his sleeping parents and 10-year-old twin brothers with a hunting rifle.

Brazilian police say the host of a TV crime show is under investigation for possibly ordering killings to boost his show’s popularity.

Richmond police had a suspect in custody last night within minutes of a shooting that took one man’s life and wounded another. More than 100 people stood watching for hours last night in Fairfield Court as police worked a homicide scene that they described as domestic in nature. Police released few details regarding the shooting about 7:14 p.m. in an apartment in the 2500 block of Rosetta Street, but the two victims and the suspect in the case are related, according to family members who would not comment by name.

Former Navy SEAL trainee Dustin Allen Turner says he has sought forgiveness from the family of a young woman he watched die even as he’s been unable to forgive the actual murderer, a man who may win Turner his release from prison. Cautiously eyeing his freedom after serving 14 years in prison for a Virginia Beach murder of which a court has ruled he shouldn’t have been convicted, Turner said he recognizes the pain of the victim’s family.

Chesterfield police this morning arrested a 33-year-old woman just an hour after receiving a report of problems at an Old Plantation Road home off Jefferson Davis Avenue. Tina Lynn Campbell was being held without bond this afternoon in Chesterfield County jail. Police did not comment about what may have prompted an attack on Wayne Sidney Davis, 53. Campbell, whom police described as Davis’ girlfriend, was arrested at another residence in the 7000 block of Old Plantation.

Albert L. Perry Jr. hoped from his youngest days to be a police officer. “His sister was always going to be a nurse, Albert the policeman,“ his mother said yesterday. Zaundra Zaneta Gray could have been anything she wanted. “She never had a challenge she didn’t face and rise above,“ her father said yesterday. His daughter was “articulate, beautiful and well-traveled,“ he said.

Prosecutors say they have provided more than 5,000 pages of evidence to attorneys of a man accused of killing Washington intern Chandra Levy.

Albert Lewis Perry Jr. begins a march toward prison instead of freedom this morning. He faces a possible life sentence when a Chesterfield County jury meets to recommend punishment for the 27-year-old in the strangulation death of a flight attendant turned prostitute. Yesterday, after 6½ hours of deliberation, the same jury found Perry guilty of first-degree murder in a largely circumstantial case.

A Chesterfield judge this morning ruled that a jury must find Albert L. Perry Jr. either innocent or guilty of first-degree murder in the death of an escort service prostitute almost two years ago.

Japan’s foreign ministry says a U.S. sailor has received a life sentence for killing a Japanese taxi driver.

A Chesterfield County judge described three days of evidence in a complex murder case as “totally circumstantial” yesterday and said he likely will allow a jury to consider only two verdicts: innocent or guilty of first-degree murder. Circuit Judge Timothy J. Hauler made the unusually frank comments outside the jury’s hearing shortly after rejecting a defense argument to dismiss a first-degree murder charge against Albert L. Perry Jr.